Day 19 | US police terrorism…, as Biden engages in bad faith negotiations, & continues Mr. Trump’s economic sanctions against Iran

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*Image Source: RT (Terms of Use). Images used per* *Creative Commons* *principles.*

LUMPENPROLETARIAT—[Sunday night, 7 FEB 2021] As RT reported today, U.S. president #45, violated the 2015 negotiation agreements between the USA and Iran around the development of nuclear technology. And, now, president #46, the Great White Hope, Emperor Biden, wants to continue that 2018 violation of the US-Iran nuclear technology agreement. But we must acknowledge the constant hypocrisy on the part of the US government and its foreign policies. The US government has nuclear technology, but doesn’t want sovereign and independent nations, who refuse to subjugate themselves to the authority and sphere of influence, or imperial hegemony, of the evil US/NATO Empire, to also have them. It’s as if the US foreign policy is this: Threaten the world with a constantly expanding nuclear and military arsenal, whilst condemning any nation, who refuses to be a pawn in US/NATO geopolitical scheming for global domination. But we may be missing something. Please help us fill in the gaps and connect the dots.

“In 2018, Donald Trump withdrew the US from the nuclear deal with Iran, which included the country promising to limit its atomic work in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.” So, the Iranian Ayatollah Khamenei responded to the USA, “Want Iran back to its nuclear deal commitments? Lift all the sanctions” imposed by Mr. Trump in contravention to the 2015 agreement. But the Biden administration simply said, no, in bad faith, basically, gaslighting Iran about the 2018 violation. And, worse, now Mr. Biden is demanding that Iran stop enriching uranium, before the U.S. will agree to lift economic sanctions, or restrictions. Of course, “enriched uranium is a critical component for both civil nuclear power generation and military nuclear weapons.” But the problem is, again, bad faith; the U.S. government has proven itself untrustworthy on the world stage, in international relations, because it broke its promises again. And now they’re making additional demands after having broken past promises. In the psychology literature, which specializes in narcissistic abuse as well as in the study of logical fallacies, this is known as moving the goal post. When your opponent constantly moves the goal post, you always lose. So, you must never allow your opponent to move the goal post on you. Or else you will be cheated out of a fair contest.

It seems the narcissistic abuse, which we witnessed from #45 will continue under #46. Gaslighting is a favorite tool of narcissistic abusers. But moving the goal post is another one. It seems Iran has been locked in an abusive relationship with the United States for decades. But Mr. Biden’s winning smile will make everything alright. So, they say, or, rather, imply. That’s gangster. We recall, just how “pleased” all of the good ‘liberals‘ have been in the first few days and weeks of the Biden administration. It seems American ‘liberals‘ care more about the illusory image Mr. Biden presents in public, than the reality he imposes on the planet and its inhabitants.

“There’s room at the top,” they are telling you still
But first you must learn how to smile as you kill
If you want to be like the folks on The Hill
—John Lennon, quoted in “Working Class Hero“

In recent weeks, as in the past, we’ve heard voices from around the world on free speech Pacifica Radio and elsewhere, which describe Americans as apathetic to the suffering of the global south, of the African Continent, Latin America, and Asian countries. This is why non-violent direct action is so very important. Public demonstrations communicate to the world, not just to our sleeping citizenry, the fact that we understand suffering and oppression exists around the world, and that Americans do care about the rest of the world. But the American racist-prone right-wing and the decadent ‘liberal‘ class are a very well-organized, and very well-funded, minority of Americans, who do not speak for America. They speak for their own partisan values of right-wing fear and centrist decadence. For years, we have understood on the left of the political spectrum that Iran is the plan for the foreseeable future of the US/NATO Empire. Jon Feffer reported, last year (Foreign Policy In Focus), “the Trump administration assassinated Qasem Soleimani, the commander of Iran’s Quds Force, in a drone strike at the Baghdad airport.” For many Americans and others, who do not pay attention to world news, this assassination came as a shock. Oh, dear! Well, well, honey, there must have been a good reason… is a common refrain. The assassination was clearly intended as an act of provocation. But the Iranian people, evidently, are too politically mature to be provoked by such ploys.

“Working Class Hero” (2020 remaster version) by John Lennon, 18 DEC 2016.

Despite the innocence, ignorance, and shocking apathy of many Americans, the U.S.’s political tensions with Iran did not begin with Mr. Trump, or even Mr. Obama. The reality is: “The United States has been in a 40-year cold war with Iran.” And US president #45 did everything he could to provoke Iran, like he, evidently, tried to provoke Black Lives Matter (BLM) and AntiFa by rallying an alliance of white privilege, white rage, and white power at the Capitol to set a trap for people of color to clash with angry white people in a conflagration large enough to invoke emergency martial law powers, and in which the broader crowd would be tainted by quasi-clandestine factions of cops-and-white-America-in-disguise lynch mob actors, who would be given a stand-down order advantage over any pro-democracy, anti-racist activists. As we saw, it would have been a bloodbath, if any anti-racists or anti-fascists had taken the bait and showed up to provoke, or be provoked. We all saw the sympathetic selfies taken by cops with proto-fascists and the preferentially-opening doors of the inside job we witnessed on January 6th, 2021. (We recall Mr. Trump similarly proposed an idea for his reality TV show to pit black entrepreneurs against white entrepreneurs when his ratings started to sag and he took to race-baiting in public to bolster his waning popularity. Cf. American Mythology: The Presidency of Donald Trump narrated by Jeremy Scahill, Intercepted podcast)

Fortunately, BLM and AntiFa didn’t take the bait laid out by Mr. Trump and his evil cronies. We have learned on free speech Pacifica Radio and elsewhere that Mr. Trump received aid and comfort in his fascist aspirations to provoke a ‘race‘ riot and impose martial law and, somehow, stay in power indefinitely, ostensibly with the complicity of the military-industrial complex (MIC) bosses. But, it seems, protecting plausible deniability, the MIC bosses stood back, as Mr. Cruz, Mr. Holly, Ms. Green, et al, not to mention any of the deep state players we rarely get to hear about, all fumbled their way through a sloppy display of political theater and mayhem on January 6th, which failed to derail the electoral process as its proponents aspired, but resulted in the loss of American lives. BLM and AntiFa didn’t take the bait; they showed restraint.

In an even more extraordinary display of restraint, the Iranian government did not retaliate for the heinous assassination by the Trump administration, which also killed others. The Iranian government and military demonstrated restraint by responding, not reacting.

“Barber: Adagio for Strings, Op. 11” interpreted by The Academy of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, 1976.

And, back in November 2020, Iranian officials, as RT and others have reported, had expressed hope, as so many hopeful ‘liberals‘ are wont to do, that the Biden administration would be different than the previous one, that Mr. Biden would not be a narcissistic abuser, like his predecessor. Certainly, the left has always reminded ‘liberals‘, i.e., centrists, that the Democrat Party is a false opposition party in the face of the overt evils of the Republican Party and their corporate and FIRE sector funders. But, in return, the left has been repaid with vitriol and persecution. It was to be expected from the Republican Party. Coming from the Democrat Party, it was the betrayal, that kept giving. Apparently, the false consciousness, which afflicts so many of us, Americans, occasionally, is particularly endemic as a permament feature among ‘liberals‘. It is not false consciousness because an authority says so. It is a false working class consciousness because it is a philosophy, which votes against its own interests, against the interests of the working classes. Any philosophy, which leads an individual or a group to vote, or act, against their own interests is a philosophy of false consciousness. But the insidious nature of false consciousness, is that we are usually unaware we are under its spell. Sometimes, even after being told we have been operating under an illusion, we find ourselves transfixed.

The sleep of reason engenders monsters.
Goya

Politically asleep, Americans are pleased with Mr. Biden’s manners and personal etiquette, as he saves America face on the world stage of public speaking. Meanwhile, the military-industrial complex policies of forever war everywhere for corporate profit continues unabated. But, since #46 says nicer things than #45, the ‘liberal‘ base is happy. Is the ‘liberal‘ base deluded? In denial?

But dear Mr. Biden, dear ‘liberals ‘, self-described right-wingers, ‘war hawks‘, neocons, war profiteers, and others, please understand: provoking a conflict with Iran is incredibly dangerous, especially as the U.S./NATO empire loses respect and authority around the world. If Iran agrees to the new conditions, which were imposed unfairly by Mr. Trump, and which are now being continued by Mr. Biden, then Iran will be essentially allowing itself to be bullied by the U.S. government. Nobody enjoys being humiliated. This should tell us a great deal about the actual intentions of the Biden administration. Just a few weeks ago, “hopeful“, or näive, or deluded, Democrat voters were almost comparing their hopes for the Biden administration to FDR, to usher in a New Deal for the 21st Century. Liberals, such as KPFA‘s Mitch Jeserich, gushed about the promise they perceived in Mr. Biden. What does this tell us about our willingness as Americans, especially as liberals, to perceive reality? What do you see? The important thing is to not stop questioning. Express yourself. Create. Solidarity.