Desperate Indian Communities Embrace Anti-Malaria Drugs To Protect Against COVID Surge
For the past month and a half, the international community has watched in horror as India has suffered from one of the world’s deadliest national outbreaks of COVID-19, provoked in part by a prime minister who held massive political rallies, and allowed massive gatherings for the celebration of Hindu religious holidays, gatherings that epidemiologists say helped seed the latest outbreak.
Even as the US and Europe have sent vaccines, medicine, oxygen tanks and other supplies, the government has refused to impose more restrictive measures, and the number of daily deaths has continued to accelerate.
The number of deaths eclipsed 4K on Thursday, topping that level for the second day in a row, as hundreds of patients succumbed to the disease while waiting in ambulances and cars in lengthy queues stretching from the nation’s overrun hospitals.
As doctors search for alternatives to remedies like Gilead’s remdesevir, a recent Reuters report highlighted just how desperate communities have become to protect against the virus. The situation is so dire, a small number of communities have embraced the unconventional strategy of dosing their populations with anti-malarial drugs to protect against COVID-19 – even though anti-malarial treatments like hydroxychloroquine supposedly don’t function as a COVID-19 prophylactic (that is, according to certain studies widely cited by the medical establishment. Others suggest that the strategies being used by these communities just might work).
Reuters reports that at least two Indian states have said they plan to dose their populations with the anti-parasitic drug ivermectin to protect against severe COVID-19 infections. And they’re moving ahead with this plan despite the WHO’s statement in late March that the current evidence is “inconclusive”.
The move by the coastal state of Goa and northern state of Uttarakhand, come despite the World Health Organization and others warning against such measures.
“The current evidence on the use of ivermectin to treat COVID-19 patients is inconclusive,” WHO said in a statement in late March. “Until more data is available, WHO recommends that the drug only be used within clinical trials.”
Merck, a manufacturer of the drug, has also said available data does not support using the drug as a COVID-19 treatment
“We do not have enough data to support its use,” said Anita Mathew, an infectious diseases expert in Mumbai.
While one of the states plans to distribute the medicine to those older than 18, the other plans to administer the medicine to all residents above the age of 2.
The state of Goa, a major tourist haven, said earlier this week it plans to give ivermectin to all those older than 18, while the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand announced plans on Wednesday to distribute the tablets to any person over the age of two, except for pregnant and lactating women.
“An expert medical panel has recommended this” Uttarakhand’s Chief Secretary Om Prakash told Reuters. “We are waiting for supplies to come in. Once they do we will distribute this drug.”
Uttarakhand state in March and April played host to the Kumbh Mela, a weeks-long Hindu gathering that attracted millions of devotees from across the country. Images of the gathering showed scant evidence of any mask wearing or social distancing as throngs of people congregated for a holy dip in the river Ganges.
The state, ruled by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, has since early April seen its COVID-19 cases surge from under 300 a day to above 7,000 a day and the death toll has also risen sharply.
One local health official rattled off some evidence that the population-wide dosing might help ameliorate the impact of the pandemic.
Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane said an expert panel based in Europe had found the drug ivermectin reduced the time to recovery and risk of death, but regulators such as WHO and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration say there is little evidence of this.
The state-run Indian Council of Medical Research recommends doctors could use the drug for mild COVID-19 patients, but warns this is based on “low certainty of evidence”.
Meanwhile, India reported 362,727 new COVID-19 infections over the last 24 hours while deaths climbed by 4,120, taking the death toll to 258,317, according to health ministry data. The country’s total confirmed cases now stands at 23.7M, though many cases and deaths are believed to have gone uncounted.
Meanwhile, the country’s vaccination rate has accelerated slightly as foreign batches arrive (and the benefits of India’s export restrictions have helped to enhance local supply).
Centers for Diseases Control (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky has “recommended” that children wear masks while playing. Her offered reason is to ensure Covid is not spread by “heavy breathing” of children near each other while around a soccer ball.
Dr. Walensky’s recommendation is one more example of Covid authoritarians’ refusal to “listen to the science.” The science says no to lockdowns and masks. The masks are not blocking the very small viruses in “heavy breathing.” Dr. Walensky also ignores the science showing that wearing a mask while exercising or playing sports has negative health effects.
Dr. Walensky’s most outrageous disregard of science is ignoring the fact that children are statistically unlikely to be at risk of either spreading Covid or becoming very sick from it.
Dr. Walensky’s recommendation is one of many examples of how children are harmed by the overreaction to coronavirus. Many children have had their physical and mental health damaged because they cannot go to school, play with their friends, or even have a birthday party because of the lockdowns.
Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the two major teachers’ unions — the National Education Association (NEA) and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) — have stood in the way of reopening schools. Teachers’ union leaders have claimed it is too dangerous for teachers to resume in-person instruction, even though adults are at little or no risk of getting Covid from children. Sadly, teachers’ unions are disregarding the interest of children. Recently released emails show the CDC disregarded the science in favor of the AFT’s restrictive guidance when developing recommendations concerning reopening schools.
The negative effects of lockdowns and school closings for children have led many parents to consider alternatives to government schools.
Some private schools have not just remained open, they have followed the science and not forced their students to wear masks.
Many parents are also considering homeschooling. Homeschooling parents obviously can ensure their children are not forced to obey mask, social distancing, and other unscientific mandates.
Parents interested in providing their children with a quality education that emphasizes the ideas of liberty should consider my homeschooling curriculum. The Ron Paul Curriculum provides students with a well-rounded education that includes rigorous programs in history, mathematics, and the physical and natural sciences. The curriculum also provides instruction in personal finance. Students can develop superior communication skills via intensive writing and public speaking courses. Another feature of my curriculum is that it provides students the opportunity to create and run their own internet-based businesses.
The government and history sections of the curriculum emphasize Austrian economics, libertarian political theory, and the history of liberty. However, unlike government schools, my curriculum never puts ideological indoctrination ahead of education.
Interactive forums allow students to learn from each other outside of a formal setting. The curriculum’s emphasis on self-directed learning and student interaction makes it ideal for parents who need to work from home but still want to homeschool their children.
I encourage parents looking at alternatives to government schools to go to RonPaulCurriculum.com for more information about my homeschooling program.
Australia “Ready” To Resume Dialogue With China As Beijing Ratchets Trade War
The past months have seen Australia-China relations reach their lowest point in history. That decline was brought about in Canberra’s decision to join the United States in seeking to curtail China’s economic and political rise, particularly during the final year of the Trump administration.
The cost has been huge for Australian exports, given China has long been its biggest trading partner, and has since the summer played hardball as it holds all the cards in the trade war, unleashing barriers and sanctions resulting in severe collateral damage on everything from seafood to coal to barley to wine to beef, and tourism sectors – along with hitting some other commodities, even timber.
And now Australia says it’s ready and willing to resume dialogue with Beijing. On Thursday Australia’s Foreign Minister Marise Payne announced at a press conference while standing alongside US Secretary of State Antony Blinken: “Australia seeks a constructive relationship with China we stand ready at any time, amongst all of my counterparts and colleagues, to resume dialogue.”
Great to meet with Foreign Minister @MarisePayne today to discuss our ongoing commitment to the health, security, and prosperity of the #IndoPacific. We look forward to celebrating the 70th anniversary of #ANZUS alongside our friend and ally Australia later this year. #USwithAUSpic.twitter.com/rTQyZG0JFh
— Secretary Antony Blinken (@SecBlinken) May 13, 2021
She underscored further while meeting her US counterpart in D.C. that Australia is “open, clear, consistent” on the number of immense challenges it faces with China.
And Blinken responded by assuring its ally that the United States will not leave Australia “alone” in the face of China’s aggressive economic coercion.
“I reiterated that the United States will not leave Australia alone on the field, or maybe I should say alone on the pitch, in the face of economic coercion by China. That’s what allies do. We have each other’s backs so we can face threats and challenges from a position of collective strength,” Blinken said.
Payne had followed up further with saying her country “seeks a constructive relationship with China” and that “We stand ready at any time, amongst all of my counterparts and colleagues, to resume dialogue.”
A new report indicates the $50bn LNG industry may be about to become the latest victim of China’s increasingly hostile trade war with Australia. #ausbiz#auspolhttps://t.co/4HtrYBcaIs
“But we have also been open and clear and consistent about the fact that we are dealing with a number of challenges. We welcome the clear expressions of support from Washington as Australia works through those differences. It is hard to think of a truer expression of friendship,” the top Australian diplomat added.
Hundreds of scholars, including some distinguished figures, have applied for positions at an online education startup that promises explicitly non-“woke” instruction in a number of academic disciplines.
Named “American Scholars,” the project was started several months ago by Matthew Pohl, former University of Pennsylvania admissions officer. As soon as word got out, résumés started to stream in from academics offering their participation, its leaders said.
Pohl described the project as the fruit of his gradual disillusionment with his career in the academic world, where he drove admissions at several prestigious universities. He noticed that with regard to education, most students weren’t getting their money’s worth, attributing that to the “administrative bloat” of establishment colleges, as well as the spread of quasi-Marxist ideologies that have come to be collectively known as “wokeness.”
He intends the project as an antidote to both. The interactive format of part-lecture, part-documentary video with quizzes, and feedback sessions will aspire to demonstrate that quality learning can be furnished at a fraction of the cost of a modern-day college. Meanwhile, the content itself will be rooted in traditional American values, in sharp contrast to the ideologies currently dominating most universities that promote hostility toward such values.
“There is a massive and unrecognized demand for actual professors, business leaders, real thinkers whom regular people can associate with and learn from to better understand how they can live better lives through the Constitution and through conservative values,” Pohl told The Epoch Times, later adding that the guiding principles of the project could be more accurately described as “classical liberalism.”
“We actually expect a significant number of people who do not identify as conservative to join us—simply because they agree with our values,” he said in an email.
For the role of chief academic officer, who is responsible for the scholarly grade of the content, Pohl tapped Michael Rectenwald, a retired liberal studies professor at New York University.
Having given up his communist beliefs, Rectenwald left his job after he irked colleagues by criticizing the woke ideology. He went on to become an authority on corporate socialism, a convergence of government and business interest in establishing a novel form of totalitarian, socialist rule. He’s authored several books on the topic, including “Google Archipelago: The Digital Gulag and the Simulation of Freedom,” which warns against the rising power and ambitions of gigantic digital companies.
American Scholars will offer modules taught by bona fide academics on history, the Constitution, the natural sciences, math, writing, business, economics and personal finance, ideological studies, literature, technology science, law, and religious studies, Rectenwald said.
He’s already received applications from several hundred scholars, including some prominent names, from which he’ll be soon picking the first 10 instructors.
“We even have chairs of departments interested in working for us,” he said.
Rectenwald shared with The Epoch Times a sample of the applicants’ names under the condition that they won’t be released for now, as none of them has yet been selected for any of the positions. In addition, Rectenwald has his own list of “top-notch talent” he’ll ask to come onboard.
“It’s going to be something where they’re able to deliver content in the way they want to, without the pressures that are being exerted on them in the university system to accommodate various ideologies like critical race theory and socialism and postmodernism and so forth,” he said, adding that such ideologies also will be taught, but from a critical standpoint.
The first offerings, planned to start in the fall, will focus on history, the Constitution, economics, and personal finance, he said.
The material will be suited for homeschoolers, college prep, as well as adult learning.
The project doesn’t seek to be accredited as an actual university, but rather to equip its alumni with the knowledge to “push back against some of the pernicious ideologies that are being purveyed in the system,” Rectenwald said.
“We’ve got to be frank. We’re in the midst of a major culture war.”
The content range, as well as the format of the platform, was selected based on a series of focus group polls of a total of about 1,000 families, Pohl said. Personal finance, for example, stood out as both an acute interest of the poll respondents as well as a blind spot of the current university system, where students often sign up for massive debt with little to no calculation of return on investment that would allow them to make such decisions adeptly, according to Pohl.
Development of the online platform is run by an expert who for now requires anonymity, due to his involvement with Big Tech, Pohl said.
So far, the project is self-funded with some offers coming in from investors, he said. He plans a subscription model starting at $19 a month and scaling up to about $39 a month for premium access.
American Scholars fits into a growing selection of education platforms that approach their material from a more traditional standpoint. The conservative Hillsdale College offers free courses on a variety of politically relevant subjects, while PragerU recently began offering an online education portal for K–12 students.
“This Is The Ministry Of Truth”: Merriam-Webster Edits Definition For “Anti-Vaxxer” To Include Opponents Of Mandatory Jabs
In another horrifyingly Orwellian example of the media world powers-that-be – in this case, dictionary impresario Merriam-Webster, struggling for relevance in the digital age – the official definition of the word “anti-vaxxer” (a recent edition to Merriam-Webster’s dictionary) has been changed to include people who oppose forced inoculation mandates.
It’s a subtle, but still shocking, example of how the White House’s narrative trickles down through the media firmament, from the news, to talk shows, and even to the dowdy business of reference-book publishing.
RT reported on the change, citing a tweet from rapper and podcaster Zuby, who tweeted a photo of the changed definition with the caption “Welcome to 1984. This is The Ministry of Truth”.
The Merriam-Webster dictionary has changed their definition of ‘anti-vaxxer’ to include
‘people who oppose laws that mandate vaccination’.
Many others commented, with some noting that they now fit the definition of “anti-vaxxer”, a term that has sunk to just a notch above “nazi” in the parlance of American Social Justice Warriors.
This isn’t the first time that Merriam-Webster has been embroiled in an ugly political episode. Back in October, Merriam-Webster edited its definition of the word “preference” to explicitly note that it is now considered “offensive” in reference to a person’s “sexual preference.” The revision helped back up Hawaii Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono when she accused Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett of being biased against gay people when she used the term as a synonym for ”sexual orientation.”
For the record, the term “anti-vaxxer” is relatively new, having entered the Merriam-Webster dictionary lexicon in 2009. The connotation is that anyone who expresses skepticism about vaccines or their safety is branded as an unhinged conspiracy theorist on par with the “9/11 truthers” or those who believe in the “Flat Earth” conspiracies.
In the 21st century, all media companies are being forced to find new ways to innovate and monetize, now that the fact that their entire dictionary is available online for free has started to cut into book sales growth, we suppose MW has, in its own way, decided to innovate. Since nobody cares about facts and the correct usage of words, it will just tell you whether using them will make you racist or not.
The week-long exercises come as the US is looking to boost military cooperation between its allies in the region to counter China. Tensions between Japan and China have been high due to a dispute over the Senkaku Islands in the East China Sea.
The exercises started in the Nagasaki Prefecture at Camp Ainoura, where Japan’s Amphibious Rapid Deployment Brigade is headquartered. The Japanese amphibious unit was established in 2018 and was created to focus on outlying islands that Japan claims, like the Senkakus, or Diayous as they are known in China.
Speaking to reporters, Japanese Defense Minister Nobuo Kishi said Tokyo was looking to expand its military ties with “like-minded” countries beyond the US. He described France as “a like-minded country that shares with Japan the vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific.”
Australia will also join a part of the exercises that will be held in the East China Sea. The US, Japan, Australia, and India form the informal grouping known as the Quad, which is seen as a possible foundation for a NATO-style military alliance in Asia. France joined the Quad for military exercises when it led naval drills in the Bay of Bengal.
Above: Opening ceremony for exercise Jeanne D’Arc 21, in Camp Ainoura, Sasebo, Japan, May 11, 2021. Source: US Marine Corps
Strengthening military ties in Asia is a crucial part of the Biden administration’s China policy. In his first address to Congress, President Biden said he told Chinese President Xi Jinping that the US “will maintain a strong military presence in the Indo-Pacific just as we do with NATO in Europe.”
“It’s Not Great”: Biden Stimulus Hits Turbulence As Pushback Grows Over Disincentivized Workers
The Biden administration’s latest push to further endebt the country with unnecessary stimulus has hit a ‘series of speed bumps‘ as The Hill puts it.
In short, there’s growing belief that showering unemployed people with money has disincentivized them from finding work, while the same overstimulus has led to inflation which we’re told is ‘transitory’ despite today’s y/y PPI print of 6.2% (vs. 5.8% expected) being the highest on record.
Of course there are, because facts are now a partisan issue. More via The Hill:
Economists are split over the issue, but it has served as an opening for Republicans to get a toehold in the unfolding battle for public opinion on Biden’s plans.
“It’s not great,” one Democratic strategist acknowledged of the April jobs report. “And it will certainly slow down the process and any momentum Biden had in recent weeks without a doubt because Republicans will use this to show that some of these ideas being pushed aren’t sound.”
The above has left moderate Democrats scrambling to reel in Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic relief bill. Some have suggested a smaller infrastructure package which would be much more narrowly focused in the hopes of gaining bipartisan support ahead of the 2022 midterm elections.
Progressive Democrats, however – apparently not understanding that members of their own party such as Joe Manchin will block aggressive money grabs – say the party needs to ‘go big’ and stop worrying about all this bipartisan malarkey.
“Let’s not pretend that Republicans are interested in any sort of compromise. Let’s go big, go bold, and make the ultra-rich and corporations finally pay their fair share so we can invest in working families,” said Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-WA) in a Wednesday tweet following a meeting between Biden and bipartisan leaders regarding his infrastructure plan.
Inflation is of course the next problemfor Biden – after CPI rose 0.8% in April and 4.2% y/y leading into April – exactly what we (and former Obama economic adviser Larry Summers, as it so happens) warned of while Biden was pushing the $1.9 trillion pandemic package.
The White House is downplaying the whole thing – with press secretary Jen Psaki describing the inflation as “transitory.”
“We knew just as the economy sort of shrunk and shut down that as it’s turning back on there would be some of these impacts,” she said, adding: “As we experience this massive transition, we continue to chart our path to recovery and we know that a number of the investments that we have proposed were long needed even before the last several months.”
Altogether, the latest economic data is likely to ‘complicate’ stimulus negotiations to put it lightly.
Ohio Offers Weekly Million Dollar Lottery Prize For Vaccinated People
The US is reporting around 118 million people are fully vaccinated this week. At about 2.2 million shots per day, that is impressive but not enough. Ohio, in particular, has concocted a plan to boost the number of people getting the COVID-19 vaccine by entering them in a weekly drawing for a million dollars, according to local news WLWT.
Gov. Mike DeWine uses the old “carrot and stick” trick, otherwise known as a motivational tactic that uses a reward (such as the chance to win a million dollars) to influence human behavior and push more people to receive the vaccine.
Five Ohioans will be drawn over five weeks, with the first drawing held on May 26.
“The pool of names for the drawing will be derived from the Ohio Secretary of State’s publicly available voter registration database,” said DeWine.”Further, we will make available a webpage for people to sign up for the drawings if they are not in a database we are using.”
The Ohio Department of Health is sponsoring the special weekly drawing for vaccinated people. DeWine is using existing federal COVID relief funds for the winning prize.
The only qualifications Ohioans need are to be vaccinated and over the age of 18.
“I know that some may say, ‘DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money.’ But truly, the real waste at this point in the pandemic — when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it — is a life lost to COVID-19,” the governor said.
Using newly printed money as a motivational tactic to manipulate human behavior to get more residents to receive the vaccine is absolutely dystopic in every way.
Here Are The States Hardest Hit By The Gasoline Shortage
Colonial Pipeline restarted operations Wednesday evening after a ransomware attack paralyzed the entire pipeline system that spans from Texas to New Jersey since last Friday. The company warned it could take days to normalize and that its pipeline would not be fully functional immediately.
Colonial’s pipeline carries about 100 million gallons per day of gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel, resumed operations around 1700 ET Wednesday. The company said it would take several days for deliveries to recover fully, and disruptions are still possible.
Four states and federal regulators relaxed fuel driver restrictions to increase deliveries of supplies to stem fuel shortages. Georgia suspended sales tax on gasoline until Saturday.
Tracking firm GasBuddy (by the way, the number one app in the App Store) outlines the hardest hit states by the fuel shortage.
As of 2300 ET Wednesday (or an hour before midnight), GasBuddy provided a full list of the percent of gas stations with fuel outages per state:
AL 9%
DC 42%
DE 5%
FL 29%
GA 50%
KY 3%
LA 0%
MD 31%
MS 6%
NC 74%
NJ 1%
SC 53%
TN 27%
TX 0%
VA 56%
WV 6%
The Carolinas, Georgia, Virginia, Washington, D.C., Maryland, and Tennessee seem to be the hardest hit states by the gasoline shortage, with relief that may not come until the weekend. Even if Colonial’s pipeline system is flowing, there is a shortage of qualified tanker drivers that may prolong shortages or at least result in continued elevated prices.
All week, drivers across the Southeast US have waited in long lines to fill up, panic hoarded fuel, were given a taste of what it’s like to live in socialist Venezuela.
With the fuel shortage crisis entering the sixth day, seventeen states and Washington, DC, are still under emergency declarations to address fuel shortages.
The emergency declaration covers Alabama, Arkansas, D.C., Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.
The shortage has pushed up the average US price of gasoline above the $3 mark for the first time in 6.5 years.
Just how much inflation is the consumer willing to take? Well, a breaking point could be nearing as consumer prices are exploding at the fastest pace since the early 1980s.
There have been few politicians in modern times who have done more to undermine personal liberty, capitalist prosperity, small government and especially world peace than the Cheney Clan. So upon Liz Cheney’s ouster from the #3 job in the US House GOP hierarchy, we say: Good riddance!
And, no, we don’t begrudge her vote to impeach the Donald. The man is such an insufferable bully-boy and megalomaniac that upon his richly deserved exile from Washington her “yes” vote amounted to little more than a slightly offensive Bronx cheer. But what is profoundly offensive about the Cheneys is their central role in high-jacking the Republican Party in behalf of the demented worldview of a small priesthood of neocon intellectuals. The latter have turned the Warfare State of the now defunct cold war with the Soviet Union into a globe-spanning imperialist monster that has bled America dry fiscally and unleashed unjustified destruction and mayhem all around the planet in a manner that would have put even Imperial Rome to shame.
The immorality, stupidity and monumental fiscal waste of the neocon Forever Wars is bad enough, but actually there is something even more lamentable. To wit, in today’s world, prosperity and liberty depend more than ever on fiscal rectitude and a conservative party that fights relentlessly and effectively to uphold it. Otherwise, the inherent self-aggrandizing proclivities of the state and the pork-barrel propensities of elected politicians will mushroom unchecked.
Yet impairment of the fiscally conservative party was the basic and original reason why the Reagan Revolution failed. It was hard enough to get elected GOP legislators to walk the plank in behalf of canceling popular Washington handouts or curtailing the entitlement benefits of up to 45% of the public that gets checks directly or indirectly from Uncle Sam. And that was even with the tailwind of a charismatic communicator in the Oval Office.
But when they were asked to face the slings and arrows of domestic interest groups and beneficiaries enraged by the Gipper’s budget cuts while simultaneously voting for massive defense increases even larger than the domestic cuts, well, they just didn’t.
After the early 1981 round of modest spending cuts it was all over except the shouting because the incipient neocons of the day convinced Reagan that the economically and industrially collapsing Soviet Union was still striving for world domination and first strike nuclear capacity, when both propositions amounted to exaggerations, lies and self-serving propaganda of the military industrial complex.
As a result, Reagan essentially threw in the towel on domestic spending retrenchment to save his huge and wholly unnecessary defense buildup. In turn, that meant that virtually no domestic programs of material import were abolished, thereby insuring that the programs modestly cut in 1981 could live for another day and an eventual recovery and make-whole, which is what actually happened.
So when the defense budget kept rising and some of the domestic cuts just got pushed back to state and local governments, the total spending share of GDP barely missed a beat during the Reagan era. In fact, the government spending share of GDP ended higher than during any previous presidential term since WWII.
Total Government Spending Share of GDP:
Eisenhower 1960: 27.5%;
Kennedy-Johnson 1968: 30.7%;
Nixon-Ford 1976: 32.9%;
Carter 1980: 32.7;
Reagan 1988: 33.7%
Still, contrary to neocon revisionism, the Reagan defense buildup did not cause the sudden collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It was the inherent impossibility of communist dictatorship and central planning that caused its economy to fail, the morale of its people to wither and its military to run out of resources.
This not only put the lie to the Reagan defense buildup, but, more importantly, offered the Republican party a historic reprieve. It could now jettison its embrace of Big Government on the Pentagon side of the Potomac and its politically motivated acquiescence to the Welfare State to assure funding for the the Warfare State.
But that was not to be and it’s Liz Cheney’s old man more than anyone else who is responsible. By becoming a stalwart war-hawk, he helped lose the strategic moment in history in 1991 when the shell of the Soviet Union formerly disappeared from the face of the earth, bringing to a close the 75-Years War that incepted with the “guns of August” in 1914.
At that point, America needed a Secretary of Defense who could see that the waters of war had parted, and that the Warfare State which had barnacled American governance for most of the years since the Great War could now be dismantled. Destiny had, in fact, bestowed upon Washington a golden opportunity to lead the world to disarmament and a restoration of the status quo ante of 1913—a world at peace and enjoying a flowering of global commerce, prosperity and freedom like never before.
What America got, instead, was a brash advocate of Washington hegemony in a now so-called “unipolar” world and an arrogant champion of applying military power or the threat of it against weak states like Iraq, Iran and North Korea which did not bend to Washington’s edicts, even if they presented no national security threat to the American homeland (they clearly didn’t).
Indeed, Dick Cheney emerged during those years as the foremost advocate of the American Imperium, and not unsurprisingly so. We had known him as a colleague in the US House as a moderate conservative on the issues, but also as a man in a hurry to accumulate power. That he did by rising to the rank of House GOP Conference Chairman after 1985, the same position that Liz Cheney holds today.
So when Bush the Elder called upon him to become defense secretary in 1989, Cheney was by then a 50-year old who had spent his entire career suckling from the public teat. That started in the Wisconsin statehouse in 1966 and thereafter he was quickly off to Washington as a Congressional intern in 1969. There he soon hitched his star to Don Rumsfeld in the Nixon White House, eventually working his way up the slippery slope to Chief of Staff to President Ford. And that was followed by election to Congress from Wyoming in 1978 and embrace of the neocon national security ideology during his years in the US House in the 1980s.
The man’s sins as Secretary of Defense were history changing. He fully supported Bush the Elder’s rash drawing of a line in the sand during Saddam’s petty quarrel with the Emir of Kuwait over OPEC quotas; the latter’s alleged theft of oil from Iraq via directional drilling along their artificial border that had been affixed by the Arab League as recently as 1960; and the war debts to Kuwait that had stemmed from Saddam’s Gulf States supported invasion of Iran during the 1980s.
The fact is, America had no dog in that hunt and should have never intervened military, but essentially did so because it could for the first time since WW II owing to the Soviet Union’s disappearance.
What added insult to injury, however, was Dick Cheney’s personal diplomacy in convincing Saudi Arabia to permit several hundred thousand American troops to be deployed on the sacred lands of the two holy places, the catalyst which turned America’s anti-Soviet mercenary army in Afghanistan, Osama bin-Laden and his al-Qaeda jihadists, into implacable enemies. The war on terrorism which inexorably followed thereupon was essentially the spawn of Cheney’s foolish brinkmanship in a middle eastern world he did not remotely understand and which presented no threat to the safety and security of America anyway.
Likewise, it was Cheney and his neocon pals in the administration of Bush the Elder who launched the unwarranted demonization of Iran, which became another bloody thread in the neocon hegemony. The phony “leading state sponsor of terrorism” charge, in fact, has justified Washington’s destructive meddling in the region ever since.
Ironically, after Washington helped Saddam Hussein make war on the Iranians during the 1980s, Cheney ultimately put him to the gallows during the regency of Bush the Younger, paving the way for his fortunately aborted plan to take out Iran’s embryonic uranium enrichment facilities with nuclear bombs. The single most important development attendant upon the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, of course, was the opportunity for NATO to declare victory, fold its tent and dissolve.
Alas, that was not to be, either, because it was Dick Cheney and his neocon henchman who got the NATO allies into the first Gulf War and conceived of the perversely misguided strategy of bringing the former eastern European satellites of the Soviet Union into NATO. So doing, they laid the foundation for today’s utterly pointless and dangerous confrontation with Russia owing to NATO’s hostile presence on its very doorstep.
Needless to say, the Cheneys are a case of the rotten apple falling directly and completely from the poisoned tree. To our knowledge, Liz Cheney has never strayed an inch from the neocon line on any of the Forever Wars, Washington’s foolishly provocative pressure on Russia or the current insane $800 billion national security budget.
Undoubtedly, the Donald’s rejection of the neocon imperium, poorly and inconsistently executed as it was, is what turned the Cheneys into enemies. And for that, at least, he deserves some credit. Moreover, if his misguided followers in the ranks of House Republicans can now get rid of the Cheney Clan, he deserves even more.
At least that would be a start toward the restoration of a conservative party free from the toxic influence of Washington’s neocon cabal, and therefore capable of re-engaging with its real mission in American democracy—that of bringing Leviathan to heel on both sides of the Potomac.
