Reflections from the Heart of the Empire, 23 July 2023: Dance of the Macabre

This theme of a dance with death goes back to wry observations about the behavior of European elites in the face of the Black Death back when it was undermining the feudal system upon which that elite’s power over the majority depended, and much the same can be said of the stewards of US Empire in mid-2023.

An imperial disaster beyond the experience of all of them, and beyond the comprehension of many of them, is unfolding. A longterm neocon plot to establish American hegemony over the center of Eurasia has utterly failed, and the consequences of that failure are only now beginning to dawn in the minds of the oligarchs and imperialists who truly run the Empire.

Three things indicate this growing awareness of the scope of the disaster. First, Henry Kissinger, the ruthless Machiavellian imperialist Creature That Will Not Die, transported his century old carcass to China to talk coexistence and reassure the Chinese government that not all the stewards of Empire have gone suicidally insane.

Second, Jake Sullivan his own self, that’s right, Biden’s National Security Advisor, publicly admitted that the long-heralded Ukrainian counteroffensive, then in its 45th day or something, had accomplished…not very much. Oh, and BTW Ukraine can’t join NATO so long as it’s fighting the war with Russia, so of course no American troops can be sent because that would be, well, suicidally insane.

Third, another creature of the Imperial Crypt, William J. Burns, Poppy Bush diplomat and current CIA Director, just got his position elevated to Cabinet-level by Biden. While no one in the Western media seemed to pick up on the significance of this promotion, its intended audience, the Russians, did right away.

RT noted that in 2008, Burns publicly warned against pursuing Ukrainian membership in NATO, arguing that it would result in a Ukrainian civil war that would “destabilize” US-Russian relations. Burns is there to help Biden pull his hairy legs out of the Ukrainian fire.

Meanwhile, the BRICS summit will go ahead, and more and more countries will start trading with each other in currencies other than the Almighty Dollar. To cold-hearted servants of empire like Kissinger and Burns, it is clear that the Ukrainian Gambit—a proxy war against Russia which Biden promised would “reduce the ruble to rubble”—has utterly failed.

Inflation, OTOH, has reared its ugly head at home, and people like Kissinger and Burns are very well aware of the domestic threats that can pose to the Empire. Those who call for eventual imperial disengagement from Ukraine will now have more influence in the halls of power.

As the corporate press loves to say, the adults are back in the room.

The questions are, how soon will US support for Zelensky start winding down, and which country, without nuclear weapons this time, will they pick for the next imperial misadventure? For they will do that. They may not be crazy enough to risk nuclear war, so that makes them an improvement over all the Slava Ukraina fools, but they are still war pigs, and the War Machine must be fed.

So relax a little—we’re really very probably NOT going to get nuked by the Russians or Chinese, Yay!—but stay vigilant, thanks for reading, and have a nice day.