Biden’s War: WWIII. Everyone Knows the Score

No Go Joe

All the world knows the score.

But no man can find the war (Tim Buckley)

Written by Julian Macfarlane, Tokyo based investigative journalist, author, geopolitical and defense analyst

Redlines and timelines

WWIII is all over the place.

I have done my best with a timeline of recent events in this conflict — but I am sure that I have missed a lot —or got some things wrong. It’s confusing — but we all know the score.

• June 4 Ukraine begins Combined Arms counteroffensive with disastrous results.
• June 21 Biden calls Xi a dictator.
• July 5 China cuts off US supply of rare metals in response to new US sanctions.
  China now just 1 to 2 years behind in semiconductor race
• July 5 Russian economic indicators positive. Growth 1.5% to 2.0%, upward trend
• July 6 Yellen to China. Criticizes China’s treatment of foreign companies. Gets high on mushrooms.
• July 7 Biden announces banned cluster munitions for Ukraine.
• July 12 Fox releases email possibly implicating Biden in Burisma scandal directly.
• July 11-12 NATO summit. Wine & dine.
• July 13 Biden sends 3000 reservists to Europe. Purpose unclear.
• July 16 Janet Yellen says aid for Ukraine War “best boost” for global economy. Make war, make money.
• July 16 Kerry to Beijing. Criticizes Chinese efforts to preserve the environment. Chinese emissions reduced last year by over 8%. American emissions reduced by 0.8%.
• July 16 Pentagon announces Europeans can begin training Ukrainian pilots to fly the F16 due in early 2024 when Abrams tanks may also be available for destruction.
• July 17 F35s & F16s sent to middle east to bully Iran which has most advanced AD system in the ME and is acquiring Su35s.
• July 17 Russians certify 14 violations of deconfliction protocols by Syria and over 300 violations of flight safety rules by US drones. US complains Russians are being “provocative”.
• July 17 Underwater attack on Kerch bridge using British MI6 supplied drones launched from civilian vessels.
• July 17 Russia announces withdrawal from grain deal. West says Russia starving poor countries, like Germany. Russia says it will give Third World countries that need it free grain.
• July 17 Dollar’s share of global reserves, 73% in 2001, drops to lowest level —below 47%. Americans say dedollarization will never happen in our lifetime— which unfortunately may be shorter than expected.
• July 18 Russia destroys military facilities in Odessa and Nikolaev in the biggest strikes on these cities in the war. As fires rage, Ukraine says it destroyed all missiles.
• July 18 China sees 2023 growth over 6%. US skirts recession at about 1 %.
• July 19 More strikes in the Odessa, Nikolaev region. Russia warns all foreign vessels to leave .
• July 19 EU-LatAm Summit. Latin America refuses to support EU policies on Ukraine.
• July 19 Military analysts estimate more than 1/3 of foreign supplied equipment for the AFU destroyed and up to half of its NATO trained army.
• July 19 Russia making gains in the Lyman, Kupyansk areas and others.
• July 19 General Milley Chairman of the Joint Chiefs says Ukraine making “progress.” Counteroffensive not a failure.
• July 19 NATO says it will switch emphasis from supplying weapons to fixing them, due to lack of weapons available.
• July 19 IRS whistleblower testify to Congress about DOJ coverup of Biden scandal.
• July 20 Russian MoD declares naval blockade of Ukraine. Foreign ships entering Ukrainian harbors will be considered to be carrying weapons and destroyed.
• July 20 DOJ considering charges of seditious conspiracy against Trump. Trump fans rally.

Who is Joe?

Wars changed drastically in the 19th Century, with nation states and new technologies. Then again in the 20th Century, with the two “world wars”. Now we have a different war — a hybrid, in which the weapons are as much economic, financial, and informational as military. It has no boundaries.

This war is really WWIII and the US is losing—once again— as it has most of its wars.

The reason?

Hubris.

Which owes much to one man— Joseph Biden Jr. He has lit the Bonfire of Vanities as Alastair Crooke calls it.

But who is Joe?

That is a hard question to answer. In the case of Putin there is a lot of evidence attesting to the circumstances of his youth, his aspirations, his values and character—all the details that define a man inside-out.

We don’t get that kind of information about Biden — unless you count his self-congratulatory “I overcame stuttering” biography — for preschoolers and registered democrats—who are the one and the same, of course, at least intellectually.

With Joe, you mostly get superficial, carefully laundered information. It is hardly a candid portrait. The media will tell you about his stuttering and his car and his love of his grandchildren— except of course for the seventh, Hunter’s lovechild just four years old who he refuses to recognize.

As a result, you can’t really know “who” this man is.

If you look at his record, however, you can tell “what” he is.

Andersen Bean did a detailed assessment in 2020, with a lot of factual information from the congressional record.

Joe Biden is not only a loyal soldier of neoliberalism, he has been the architect of much of today’s hellish political landscape. The last fifty years of ruling class ascendancy is a timeline studded with Creepy Joe’s despicable actions.

Looking at Bean’s research, you will agree with his characterization, even if you don’t like his language.

Biden’s actions as President further confirm the historically obvious — that the man is a political climber and opportunist, proud of being a mover and shaker, but with few principles about what he moves and what he shakes.

This lack of values is a problem. A President with no values implies a country with no values.

Today, Biden is an 80 year old man with the nuclear keys— if his dementia permits him to remember where they are. In addition, the confusion and temper tantrums that many accuse Biden of are fairly common for people with his condition.

Some people age well. Some, like Joe, age poorly. Could Biden inadvertently launch a nuclear strike in a snit? I don’t think there are safeguards in place to cover this kind of situation.

Biden’s decision to run for President in 2024 is indicative of the problem. He should have withdrawn, opening the field for someone not necessarily younger — but in full command of his wits. Then it might not be necessary to resort to dirty tricks, rabble rousing and lawfare to win the election.

As I said — hubris. Vanity. Pride. Lack of principles. The bonfire Crooke speaks of is smokey indeed.

Lack of principles

The Burisma Scandal, which has been smoldering now for a long time, got a boost this month . with new emails released July 12.

Did Biden receive a $10 million dollar bribe as alleged? We don’t know. But from a legal point of view, the evidence deserves a Special Counsel—which will not happen—not with the current DOJ despite whistleblowers coming forward one after another to testify to DOJ malfeasance.

Joe Biden and his son are apparently not so much above the law — as they are the law itself. L’etat, c’est moi. Les lois c’est moi. With new charges announced against him it seems daily, poor Trump may have to pardon himself from prison. But that is American “democracy”.

Republicans and Democrats can debate the importance of Joe’s dementia or his involvement in Hunter’s seamy steamy business or his lack of regard for the basic principles of justice— but to all those who do not worship in ideological churches, it must be clear that overall Joe lacks judgment, imagination and moral values.

Moral Failures

Biden’s moral failures are most important.

Once in the White House, Biden surrounded himself with certified neo-con advisors.

As a result, the White House first forced Russia to intervene in the Ukraine. Out of a force of 1.7 million, Western Ukraine went on to suffer 600,000 casualties, according to Larry Johnson. Yet, despite that Biden has demanded Zelensky carry out a counteroffensive, which he must have known would fail miserably— at great cost in lives. The White House is also pushing for a war with China and doubling down on its efforts to overthrow Assad in Syria, if not start some kind of bloody conflict with Iran.

Why?

Basically, to keep American military industrial media industries humming, while sucking the lifeblood out of European economies. It’s the neoliberal thing.

Eric Zuesse writes:

What is at the bottom of all of this? Massive, world-beating, corruption, at the very top of the U.S. Government, and enforced upon all of its foreign ‘allies’ or colonies (vassal regimes) including all of their mainstream ‘news’-media (after all, these are ‘democracies’), so that the money-funnel from the masses to the classes will be able to keep on working as it has been doing ever since 1945.

Who is the “top” of the US government. Joe Biden, of course.

Call it what it is — psychopathy on a national level. There is gain in the short term— but disaster at the end of the line — and in between blood and death.

All this make the US the world’s biggest war profiteer.

When Janet Yellen says that aid for Ukraine is good for the global economy, she means the US economy. “We are the World”. But the aid can only keep flowing as long as war continues— either in Ukraine— or elsewhere.

It’s got to the point, where the US and NATO have used up MIC’s inventory. They couldn’t fight a real war with any peer level adversary. But that doesn’t matter because, as I have said, this is a hybrid war, waged non-militarily for the most part. You can kill people with sanctions, too. In any case, no inventory means the MIC gets more money to fill its warehouses.

As I wrote in a previous article, the Biden administration cannot but be fully aware that the Russians will win in the end. They just don’t care. By that time, the Russia has won, and “Ukraine” has disappeared as an independent state, the Americans hope to have gutted Europe — and then take the off ramp for a new war some other place, preferably a proxy war in the Pacific. The money will keep on flowing to the MIC.

In the end, such failures of judgement and imagination exacerbated by a total lack of morality can only lead to social dysfunctionality and eventual political collapse.

China and Economic War

The US war on China has really been underway for a long time – with attempts to weaponize economics and hamstring Chinese technological development, especially semiconductors. It’s amoral of course.

More than that — it’s stupid.

The US can’t make much in the way of semiconductors itself anymore — just 12% compared to 37% in 1999. It has neither the industrial capability nor the engineers. Massa’ don’t grow the cotton- that’s the slaves. The US outsources to Taiwan, Japan and South Korea—and China.

Yet, sanctions and other measures actually spur development in China — as has also happened in Russia.

There’s lots of proof.

This year, one of the US’s Chinese targets— Huawei —showed a full line of wares at the World Mobile Conference with its new technologies. It’s back— stronger and better. In fact, it dominates its field.

In semiconductor tech, the Chinese have already broken the 5 nm barrier. They were just two years behind the rest of the world in 2022— but appear to be on track to fully catch up— if not surpass— the West by 2025—with their “Whole Nation Approach”.

The West sneers at the concept of an entire nation coming together to achieve important goals. It’s Maoism they say forgetting that the Americans themselves adopted this idea during WWII. How else did the US become “the Arsenal of Democracy”.

Commie stuff or not —an entire country rising as one to confront existential challenges works.

It has certainly worked in Russia.

In the case of China, it dominates in almost all key areas of technological development and innovation. Previously the country was said to lead in 37 out of 44 areas. As of today, I count 41. Vaccines, for example and DNA, mRNA research.

It is because the “Whole Nation” approach actually works that we will likely see peaceful reunification between Taiwan and China earlier than later: they are, in the end family — all Chinese. The US will have to look for a new Ukraine elsewhere .

That aside, the Chinese economy continues to grow at 5 to 6 percent— on an upward trend. The Russian economy is also trending up. The US economy by contrast appears to be skirting recession —but dedollarization is progressing 10 times faster than previously.

There is little that the US can do to correct matters — it is not a “whole nation” anymore — it is a divided nation. Joe has made sure of that.

Biden the Non-Thinker

Biden is not a thinker, like Putin or Xi. His history shows a man who does not consider consequences – just follows the flow.

In his must-read article cited earlier, Alastair Crooke explains how Western elites use “narratives” to rationalize their actions and get everyone swimming with the current, straight and narrow. This is not a river or stream. It is at best a canal. At worst, a sewer.

Narratives persuade people to jump in. Once in, it is hard to escape. The embankment is hard to climb. A few escape — with effort. Most do not.

Biden’s goal was always to keep afloat — in the mainstream — where most of the garbage floats. He prided himself on seeing all sides— except he always opted for whatever side was in his best interest.

Such behavior requires denial— and willing suspension of not just disbelief —but of thought itself.

In this respect, Biden’s dementia is not only physiological or neurological, it is an expression of his personality. Andersen’s study suggests it began long ago.

In fairness, while not much is really known about this man’s inner life as he was growing up, Biden was almost certainly bullied and harassed for his stuttering. Such treatment often predisposes victims to protect themselves by seeking the acceptance of whomever has power. In this process, principles and values become secondary.

This is not the case with everyone, of course. There are many strategies: one can be the classic toady” others choose “outsider” strategies. Still others become angry and aggressive or just withdraw. How one copes depends on many factors but in the end it defines the person.

I should know. My father and one other member of my family not only had ASD – but speech problems which they coped with in quite different ways. And I myself am neurologically “divergent”.

Armchair psychology side, Biden clearly sticks to a narrative given him by his political culture. He does not question or think.

Let us remember that Biden is not the first President with mental issues. Ronald Reagan’s Alzheimer’s appeared as early as 1984, certainly 1986, long before his eventual diagnosis in 1997.

In such cases, the Presidency is really the President’s cabinet. Reagan, Alzheimer or not, had a better cabinet and rejected the NeoCons — as in fact Trump now has.

Biden became a Neocon on entering office, if not before.

As a result, it is easy for him to call Putin a “killer” and Xi a “dictator” and repeat obvious lies about Chinese “spy balloons” and the Ukraine and the rest of the world and divide the US with a witch-hunt against a political rival. Neocons never have to say they are sorry.

His narrative has no originality. Nor reality. No authenticity. And, of course, no morality.

Proxies

To avoid embarrassment, Biden’s NeoCon cabinet tries to restrict Joe to scripted, largely ceremonial on-camera appearances or interviewers with friendly interlocutors.

Ironically, the American Revolution started because of “Mad King George’s” mania. Now we have an increasingly unstable Mad King Joe. And he has started another revolution— this time against America, within and without.

So now you see a succession of proxies—mercenaries, Ukrainians, Poles, Brits, Germans, Al Qaeda— carrying out American foreign policy, —America’s Hessians —all in the flow. You see the US government committing all the sins that Thomas Jefferson accused Mad George of — against Americans themselves. Read the Declaration of Independence.

Diplomatically, Biden has his proxies too— a hydra of talking heads.

Blinken I have already written about.

Janet Yellen went to China to attack the Chinese for restricting American businesses, the US restrictions on Chinese businesses notwithstanding—but also hoping to bully the Chinese into somehow bailing the US out of its economic crisis.

This is just after the Chinese had cut off supplies of rare metals to the US in retaliation for US economic attacks.

The US has supplies for two years, but then it will have trouble manufacturing electronics in the few essential areas left to its manufacturing industry — high end military and industrial electronics.

This was the same Yellen who publicly stated the war is good for the “global” aka US economy.

The Chinese fed her magic mushrooms, perhaps hoping she might get some vision.

John Kerry followed Yellen.

Remember him? The Almost-President.

At the end of the Vietnam War, he famously asked:

‘How do you ask a man to be the last man to die for a mistake?’

That got publicity and was the start of his political career. He is now the Special Presidential Envoy for the Climate, to color Joe green. John and Joe are too tall to be Little Green Men— but they are still alien.

Kerry went to China and complained about Chinese emissions, of course, hoping the Chinese would (again “somehow”) bail the US out of its environmental crisis.

The Chinese reduced their emissions by 8% in 2022 and have made major advances. In the US emissions increased. 0.8% and things are getting worse, especially for the most vulnerable.

The US always likes to pretend that China is at fault for the climate, just as it is for everything else. That wasn’t exactly Kerry’s message. Still you can read between the lines.

Despite his “liberal” credentials, Skull and Bones Kerry has something in common with Joe — he always gone with the flow. Go along to get along.

Whatever he says about Vietnam, he volunteered for service in Vietnam, became a naval officer and went to work killing Vietnamese because “it was the right thing to do”. Then, when the tide of public opinion turned, he swam with it. That was the right thing to do, too.

Now he travels around the world representing the world’s biggest polluter— preaching environmentalism.

The Chinese were not impressed with the hypocrisy.

Joe fiddles as America burns

With climate change America is indeed burning.

It is, however, burning in more ways than one.

Perhaps Joe is less like Mad George and more like Nero. He fiddles while old people unable to afford air conditioning die of heat stroke, innocents are killed by Ukrainian bombs, and the US devolves. There will be a lot more people who can’t afford an air conditioner.

It is the end of Happy Hour for the US—which is about to finally get a bar bill so huge that the kids are going be eating beans for a long time—and, as in Europe increasingly, even if you have an air conditioner, you won’t be able to afford to use it.

As we head for the 2024 election in the US, the dollar is gradually losing value and alternative financial instruments are in the process of emerging to replace it. The US owes almost 36 trillion dollars. If the dollar is no longer the reserve currency, it is going to start having to pay up.

Yes, that’s what happens when you can’t pay your debts. Who loses? YOU do!

Making foreign policy a joke

If you thought Trump was bad—a joke– Joe is worse, making US foreign policy, if not the whole country a joke.

The NATO Summit in Vilnius is a good example. After months of the media mooting a NATO consensus on aggressive action against the Russians, it turned into just another cocktail party for elites.

In 2021 Biden assured Zelensky that he could join NATO, thereby encouraging Western Ukraine to escalate attacks on Eastern Ukraine, while at the same time, crossing another of Russia’s red lines and helping start the war. Then, he kept on effectively promising membership. Naturally, Zelly attended Vilnius— in his military fatigues. Only to be disappointed. His role was obviously different from what he had thought.

It seems that someone in the White House noticed that Ukraine joining NATO now would automatically put NATO at war Russia – real war where NATO bases disappear— poof, poof.

So Joe said sure you can join NATO — but only after you win the war, which of course will never happen.

Zelly was like the token black guy invited to a frat party where everyone is white. He goes hoping to join. Then they explain he doesn’t meet their standards — yet. Better luck next time., which means never.

Promises, promises.

Joe makes promises like his election promises— made to be forgotten.

The F16s, which won’t come until next year, if ever, won’t change anything.  Even if the Ukrainains do get them, the Russians will blow them out of the sky—the myth of superior American military technology crashing with them. Remember those burning Leopard 2s? Ditto: Abrams tanks.    This is not the kind of advertising, the MIC wants, and they will put it off as long as they can.

Now, NATO says it is switching to repairing existing Ukrainian materiel since they have more to give other than out-of-date cluster munitions. They won’t change anything either since the UkraNazis have been using them for years.

They just soil the already grimy reputation of the US.

Still, the US keeps on making promises, ever bigger, ever more absurd.

But there is always a reckoning.

For Joe, there will be a Day of Judgment.

July 12. Fox released some new emails about Burisma — something directly affecting Joe’s chances to be re-elected in 2024.

Scandals

Propaganda or not, the public loves scandals. Especially ones with drugs and sex—and huge amounts of cash.

Poor Joe!  Remember Joe talking about how poor he was?

“I entered as one of the poorest men in Congress, left one of the poorest men in government, in Congress and as vice president.”

Somehow, he got rich— fast.

The Republicans have discovered yet more emails connecting Joe to the Burisma
Scandal – plus allegations of a $10 million bribe, er, sorry …monetary donation…. The various allegations are unconfirmed but are credible enough to normally require investigation.

The timing of the Fox report was bad since the Secret Service had just discovered coke in the White House around July 5th.

On July 16th the investigation was shelved —despite cameras everywhere in the White House. Public suspicion was aroused.

Who’s the most famous cokehead in the US? A frequent visitor to the White House — Hunter Biden, the rotten apple of Joe’s eye.

Burisma was Hunter’s work. The evidence all points to Joe’s involvement. If this were Trump a special counsel would have been appointed long ago to try and untangle the web of corruption.

It did not help matters that Tara Reade was still in the headlines—in the Alt media anyway after applying for Russian citizenship after fleeing fled to Moscow fearing for her safety. Hunter, bribery, drugs and sex—all within a month.

While Joe fiddles.

Who IS this man anyway? Sometimes the sins of the Father are visited upon the Sons. Sometimes the sins of the Son are visited upon the Father.

The Need for Distractions

As a politician, Joe depends on looking good.

He has had extensive cosmetic surgery to hide his wrinkles. He uses the media to provide cosmetic surgery on the wrinkles, if not the bleeding sores of his political if not military policies.

And what better place for this nip & tuck than the Ukraine.

But the war in the Ukraine is going badly for NATO as this SouthFront Video indicates.

Voiceover: Julian Macfarlane

Even CNN and Newsweek and MSNBC are beginning to notice. Out of a force reported to have been 67,000 men, the AFU has lost almost half. Of its NATO supplied equipment more than 30 %. More than a third of AFU casualties later die compared to only 10% for Russians. The Russians have perhaps 54 tanks out of action — compared to full losses for 150 to 170 Ukrainian tanks in various categories. But half of the Russian tanks are repairable. Larry Johnson estimates that overall the AFU has had 600,000 out of an initial force of 1. 7 million (counting reserve.)

The AFU’s army was trained in the US Army’s Combined Arms Maneuver Strategy — except that the AFU never had the arms to combine to make it work. Not enough artillery, tanks, minesweeping equipment, AD, and almost no airpower. So after major losses applying NATO tactics starting June 4, they resorted to “meat assaults” with small groups of men, basically cannon fodder.

The US then publicly criticized the AFU for not using combined arms as it was supposed to — so the AFU is once again trying with the 116th, 117th, 118th brigades on the Zaporozhye front and three Banderite brigades near Rabotino. They are doomed. But it is more excitement for the masses in the West.

All this meant, some major surgery on the story, to mix a metaphor.

The ultimate distraction was the attack on Kerch bridge with British supplied aquatic drones carried on civilian ships in the Ukrainian grain corridor. The attacks killed a father and mother and injured their young child putting the highway portion of the bridge temporarily out of commission until September, followed by an attack on a Crimean village which killed a teenage girl out to watch the sunset.

Russian retaliation was swift and escalatory. They not only repudiated the grain deal while pledging grain to poor countries for free, they declared a naval blockade of the Ukraine giving civilian shipping 24 hours to leave. They hit military infrastructure in Odessa and Nikolaev destroying fuel depots, repair facilities, and air defense systems — the largest such attacks on these cities since the beginning of the war.

Those attacks started on the 18th and continue.

They have also upped the rhetoric about American drones violating confliction agreements in Syria and buzzing them, indicating that they might take down more drones over the Black Sea rather than just the one some time ago. It is likely that they have EW technology to do this — but they are unlikely to show their hand unless they really have to.

The distractions of new attempted combined arms assaults and the Kerch attack have provided opportunity for the Russians to begin a counter-counteroffensive in the north of Donbass.

For the rest of the article,  click HERE  to go to my Substack site, News Forensics.

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