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Tom Hickey's avatar

Economist Michael Hudson was in on the formation of US policy when he was working for Herman Kahn at the Hudson Institute. He provides a fascinating account that seems to support Doctorow.

https://scheerpost.com/2024/10/08/michael-hudson-and-richard-wolff-middle-east-exploding-ukraine-crumbling-us-take-action/

Incidentally, Hudson also worked as a Wall Street economist back then. He is 85 now, a couple of months older than I am. He reports from experience on the economic dimension of US policy, in particular, foreign policy through international economic institutions. See, for instance, his book Superimperialism.

Historian Carroll Quigley, who was permitted inside, also reported on the intentions and method of the financial elite at gaining world dominance through finance.

"The powers of financial capitalism had (a) far-reaching aim, nothing less than to create a world system of financial control in private hands able to dominate the political system of each country and the economy of the world as a whole. This system was to be controlled in a feudalist fashion by the central banks of the world acting in concert, by secret agreements arrived at in frequent meetings and conferences. The apex of the systems was to be the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a private bank owned and controlled by the world's central banks which were themselves private corporations. Each central bank... sought to dominate its government by its ability to control Treasury loans, to manipulate foreign exchanges, to influence the level of economic activity in the country, and to influence cooperative politicians by subsequent economic rewards in the business world."

Carroll Quigley, Tragedy and Hope: A History of the World in Our Time. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1966, VII, page 324.

Carroll Quigley (1910-1977) was Professor of History at Georgetown University, member of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), and mentor to Bill Clinton.

This quote begins a section of the chapter on the BIS. Tragedy and Hope and other Quigley works are available at his site.

http://www.carrollquigley.net

Regarding the Doctorow dispute, I think that there are overlapping interests at work and so looking for a single efficient cause is too narrow an approach. I would say that Doctorow is essentially correct about Isreal being a US proxy, and it seems that this is how the US deep state views it. However, Johnson also appears to be correct to a degree with his Rotweiler metaphor. Generally, positing a single cause or a single independent variable is too narrow. I am qualifying my assertions here since we can only observe events from the outside, and as Hudson's account shows, there is a lot we don't know that happens behind the curtain.

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Surviving the Billionaire Wars's avatar

Regardless of who is top dog, USUK & Israel are enmeshed. To quote Killary, "At this point, what difference does it make?"

Their bad karma will take us all down. Live by the nukes. Die by the nukes.

I am suspicious of *all* the "retired" 3-letter stackers/analysts, including Mark Wauck, who banned me over a mild disagreement, without warning. Was I over the target? On quick research I discovered his *bil* sold state secrets to Russia. Wauck was 1st to notify the FBI of suspicions. Now Wauck comes out pro-Russia. Really?!?

Johnson has his own credibility problems. He is "good friends" with Stephen Bryen, a treasonous traitor who sold state secrets iirc to Israel & was "punished" by being fired & re-hired into a position with greater access to state secrets. And now is using substack to profit off the slaughter of innocents.

I no longer subscribe to Johnson, but do read his posts. I don't do podcasts so happily missed the derisive laughter. Who knows, maybe it was intended to misdirect if you were flying too close to the target. Or maybe he took it personally Johnson was initially seriously pro-Israel, spouting the party line. His readers, myself included, pushed back hard with piles of verified facts. He was forced to change his tune to maintain believability.

Just do your thing, Julian. Don't waste precious time over them. There will be differences of opinion.

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