Dialog International

The Strange Death of NATO

IThis week marked the 70th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, the most successful alliance in history that brought peace, prosperity and freedom to Europe.  And yet the celebration felt more like a funeral, with a number of member nations - led by Germany - questioning the necessity of NATO:

Is NATO dying? The idea was once unthinkable, but after the German cabinet decided to keep defense spending as low as 1.25% of gross domestic product for the next five years it has become unavoidable. This decision is not driven by any fiscal urgency. Germany is projected to have a balanced budget after last year’s surplus of €11.2 billion, its fifth annual surplus in a row.

What Berlin means by this decision is clear: The North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the U.S. are not as important to Germany as they used to be. While irritation with and contempt for President Trump influence German foreign policy, something more profound is at work. Democrats including President Obama, as well as Republicans like John McCain, have long called on Germany to demonstrate its commitment to NATO by spending 2% of GDP on defense. By refusing even to come close to meeting NATO’s spending targets, Berlin is thumbing its nose not only at Donald Trump but at the U.S.

That Germany is now seen as an unreliable partner did not go unnoticed by some German observers - who call Germany "bündnisunfähig" - loosely translated as unable to live up to its commitments:

Am meisten gilt das für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland, deren politische Elite gewohnheitsmäßig auf Nato-Gipfeln kraftvolle Entschlüsse unterstützt, um dann, wieder zu Hause, das Gegenteil zu tun. So viel Illoyalität geht eine Weile gut – und dann nicht mehr. [...]Von autonomer europäischer Verteidigung zu fabulieren, falls Trumps Amerika eigene Wege geht, ist Zeitvergeudung und nährt nur Illusionen. Die Wahrheit lautet: Der deutsche Tugendbold ist nicht mehr bündnisfähig.

This unwillingness, or inability, to meet its commitments has caused some to question the value of the alliance - as, for example this commentary in the Wall Street Journal:  Why America Needs New Alliances: 

A central question for a revitalized alliance of democratic nations is which way the winds will blow in Western Europe. For a generation after the Berlin Wall’s fall in 1989, U.S. administrations seemed willing to take responsibility for Europe’s security indefinitely. European elites grew accustomed to the idea that perpetual peace was at hand, devoting themselves to turning the EU into a borderless utopia with generous benefits for all.

But Europe has been corrupted by its dependence on the U.S. Germany, the world’s fifth-largest economic power (with a GDP larger than Russia’s), cannot field more than a handful of operational combat aircraft, tanks or submarines. Yet German leaders steadfastly resist American pressure for substantial increases in their country’s defense capabilities, telling interlocutors that the U.S. is ruining a beautiful friendship.

Recent polls in Germany show that Germans fear Donald Trump more than Vladimir Putin.  Maybe Germany would be happier as part of the Russian Federation?

Trump joins Die LINKE and Alternative für Deutschland AfD in Disparaging NATO Alliance

Donald Trump showed that he is firmly aligned with Germany's pro-Putin political parties - The Left Party (Die LINKE) and the far-right Alternative for Germany Party (AfD) - in renouncing the NATO alliance that has secured peace and prosperity for Western nations for over 70 years.  He made his views very clear in a interview on Wednesday:

Article 5 is the provision in the NATO treaty under which an attack on any one member is treated as an attack on the whole alliance, triggering an automatic collective response. And it is a provision that Donald Trump cast into unprecedented doubt in a Wednesday interview with The New York Times, in which he said he would defend the Baltic states against a Russian invasion only if he deems that those countries have “fulfilled their obligations to us.”

Most tellingly, the Trump camp exerted its influence on the GOP Platform by throwing the Ukraine under the bus:

Despite the danger to our national security, Donald’s advisers (some of whom, including Donald’s campaign director, Paul Manafort, have ties to allies of Putin) successfully weakened the Republican Party’s platform with respect to Ukraine, reneging on a promise to provide aid to the Ukrainians in their struggle against Russian aggression.

Ryan Lizza Verified account ‏@RyanLizza

Just talked to GOP congressman who said most under-covered story of convention is how Trump aides changed GOP platform to be more pro-Putin.

The Kremlin is beside itself in its support for the Trump campaign:

The evidence of Trump’s unseemly affinity for Putin is extensive but circumstantial. Yet the most disturbing explanation for the evidence continues to get more plausible. Today, Josh Rogin reports, the Republican Party officially altered its platform on Ukraine and Russia. The previous platform advocated “providing lethal defensive weapons” to Ukraine, reflecting the virtually unanimous position of the Republican Party Establishment. Trump staffers prevailed on the Platform Committee to replace that language with a milder endorsement of “appropriate assistance.”

Given how little attention Trump has paid to the substance of the platform, the intervention is striking. At the very least, it suggests that the candidate’s extensive, fulsome praise for the Russian dictator is more than a passing fancy. Reporters who investigate these ties are being very careful about their conclusions, but this looks really bad.

Meanwhile, the Kremlin's propaganda network in Germany has stepped up the attacks on Trump's opponent Hillary Clinton:

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Oskar Lafontaine

about 2 weeks ago

Hillary Clinton
Die vermutlich nächste Terroristin im Weißen Haus

Nach deutschem Recht ist diejenige eine Terroristin, die rechtswidrig Gewalt anwendet, um politische Ziele durchzusetzen. Das trifft auf Hillary Clinton, die auch „Killary“ genannt wird, in vollem Umfang zu.

... See More

 

#NachDenkSeiten: US seeking nuclear annihilation of Europe

The anti-American conspiracy site NachDenkSeiten is expanding its role as a Kremlin propaganda outlet.  I had already blogged about Wolfgang Bittner - the children's book author who is now an "intelligence expert" - and his pro-Putin book Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA ("The Conquest of Europe by the US"). Bittner's "thesis" is that United States has ruined Germany's natural alliance with Russia by forcing Putin to annex the Crimea with military force and forcing him to send thousands of Russian troops and weapons into Eastern Ukraine.  Putin's aggression is entirely the fault of the United States and its vassals in the NATO alliance.  Once again, Germany is "victim" (Opfer) of American imperialism. 

BIttner's book was pretty much dismissed by knowledgeable reviewers, but, according to NachDenkSeiten, Bittner is intentionally shunned by Germany's CIA-controlled mainstream media.  But now, amazingly, Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA is available in a new edition with an addendum where he outlines the most recent treachery of the United States:

"Der Autor geht in einem „Nachtrag 2015“ insbesondere auf die methodische Strategie der US-Regierung und der NATO hinsichtlich Westeuropas und Russlands ein, wie auch auf die desolate, sich immer mehr zuspitzende Situation in der Ukraine nach dem Staatsstreich vom Februar 2014."

What Bittner "reveals" in this Nachtrag 2015 is nothing less than America's plan to wage nuclear war on the European continent:

„Die Grenze zum Wahnsinn ist längst überschritten, wenn es in einem CSIS-Report [Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington] heißt, begrenzte taktische Atomschläge seien möglich, ohne ‚die amerikanische Heimat‘ zu gefährden. Das ist die Theorie, sozusagen die Planungsphase. Aber in der Praxis des bislang noch Kalten Krieges ist eine neue Stufe der Eskalation erreicht, wenn gemeldet wird, dass die USA im Rahmen einer neuen Atomstrategie der NATO Anfang September 2015 Abwürfe von Übungsatombomben in Lettland vorgenommen haben und des Weiteren per Gesetz die Möglichkeiten geschaffen wurden, in der Ukraine Atomwaffen zu stationieren.“

("We have now crossed the threshold of insanity when a CSIS Report states that limited nuclear attacks are possible without impacting the American homeland. That theory is now in the planning phase. But in practice we have reached a new stage not seen since the Cold War, when it was reported that the US has dropped dummy nuclear bombs on Latvia in September 2015 as part of NATO's new nuclear strategy, and has created the legal framework for stationing nuclear weapons in the Ukraine.") 

What are Bittner's primary sources for these "explosive" revelation?  BIttner points to former National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski and his 1997 book The Grand Chessboard: American Primacy And Its Geostrategic Imperatives. Brzezinski is interesting to read, but the book dates from the Clinton presidency, and does Bittner even realize that Brzezinski hasn't held an official government position since 1981 and the end of Jimmy Carter's presidency? The other source - a favorite of German conspiracy theorists - is George Friedman and his private intelligence group Stratfor. Stratfor is pretty much of a joke ever since the 2012 Wikileaks put out of millions of internal Stratfor e-mails and documents that exposed much of Stratfor's "intelligence" as bogus. Nobody in Washington believes Friedman has any influence or credibility on US foreign policy, but the fact that he has a Jewish-sounding last name impresses Bittner and the German conspiracy theory community.  

But what about Bittner's claim that the US "dropped dummy nuclear bombs on Latvia in September 2015 as part of NATO's new nuclear strategy".  The source of this information was a New York Times article that reported on a June 2015 joint US-Latvia military exercise to shore up NATO's eastern flank, Nowhere in the article does it state that the dummy bombs dropped 180 miles from the Russian border were Übungsatombomben. This joint US-Latvian exercise was a response to Putin's sending troops and heavy weapons into Eastern Ukraine as well as to his nuclear sabre rattling:

“Let me remind you that Russia is one of the world’s biggest nuclear powers,” Putin told Russian youth last summer. “These are not just words — this is the reality. What’s more, we are strengthening our nuclear deterrent capability and developing our armed forces.”

But, of course, for Wolfgang Bittner and Putin's"useful idiots" at NachDenkSeiten,he only has peace and goodwill in his heart.

 

Merkel: USA is responsible for Syrian refugee crisis

No, not the chancellor, Angela Merkel, but rather the law professor Reinhard Merkel. Unlike the chancellor, Reinhard Merkel is a Putin loyalist.  After Putin followed Hitler's playbook in his 1938 Anschluss of Austria by holding a phony plebiscite in Crimea, Professor Merkel gave Russia his seal of approval for taking the peninsula. "Hat Russland die Krim annektiert? Nein." Ever since then, Prof. Merkel has been an honored guest on the Russian propaganda outlet RT Deutsch.

In his most recent pro-Putin piece in the FAZ, Prof. Reinhard blames the US for Assad's slaughter of Syrians and the ensuing refugee crisis:

Am 24.März 2013 erschien in der „New York Times“ unter der Überschrift „Waffenlieferungen an syrische Rebellen ausgedehnt - mit Hilfe der CIA“ ein detailreicher Bericht. Er weist mehr als 160 Frachtflüge mit Kriegswaffen nach, die seit Anfang 2012 aus Saudi-Arabien, Qatar und Jordanien regelmäßig am türkischen Flughafen Esenboga entladen und von dort über die Grenze nach Syrien geschafft wurden - alle mit logistischer und vielfacher sonstiger Hilfe der CIA. Das zeige, konstatiert die Zeitung nüchtern, dass die Vereinigten Staaten entgegen regierungsamtlichen Bekundungen ihren arabischen Verbündeten sehr wohl „auch bei der Förderung der tödlichen Seite des Bürgerkriegs“ zur Hand gingen.

No mention of Assad's brutal murder and torture or demonstrators who took to the streets - initially in peaceful protests against the dictatorship.  And what weapons does Assad's army use?  Kalishnikov rifles and Russian RPGs. Assad's most potent weapons are Russian MiGs and gunships, which are used to drop barrel bombs on Syrian citizens.  Yet Russia - Assad's most powerful ally - in not mentioned once in the FAZ piece.

Is the US really to blame for the mass slaughter in Syria?  The Washington Post has a timely update on the civil war - Islamic State has Killed Many Syrians, but Assad's Forces Have Killed More: 

BEIRUT — President Bashar al-Assad’s government has killed far more people in Syria this year than the Islamic State, monitoring organizations and analysts say, even as the extremist group grabs headlines with its shocking brutality.

Between January and July, Assad’s military and pro-government militias killed 7,894 people, while the Islamic State killed 1,131, according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights, a monitoring group based in Britain. In a single day last month, government airstrikes are said to have killed more than 100 people in a residential area of Douma, a suburb of the capital, Damascus.

“No human being should have to endure what Assad is putting us through,” said Hassan Takuldin, 27, who witnessed the Douma attacks.

Government forces are responsible for many more of the estimated 250,000 deaths in the four-year-old conflict than are the Islamic State militants and rebel groups, analysts and monitoring groups say. The figures, they say, underscore how Assad’s indiscriminate use of violence has empowered the Islamic State and other extremist groups and forced millions of Syrians to flee to neighboring countries and Europe. [...]The government’s Russian-supplied aircraft can fly practically unopposed over rebel-held areas to launch airstrikes, which include releasing barrel bombs, metal drums packed with explosives.

Why did Professor Merkel fail to mention once the most important international player in the Syrian conflict?  Maybe he wanted more exposure on RT Deutsch and Sputnik.  But the more important question is:  why did the FAZ - a newspaper I respect - print such a  distorted piece on such an important topic?

 

Albrecht Müller uncovers the vast CIA conspiracy to spread democracy

Albrecht Müller, the author and editor of the influential Web site NachDenkSeiten, has a simple, but very consistent, worldview:  everything bad that happens anywhere is the fault of the United States.  That is why the working title of Müller's new book is "Der Tod kommt aus Amerika" ("Death Comes from America").

In Albrecht Müller's opinion, one of the bad things happening over the past decade has been the threat to authoritarian regimes by popular protests.  We've seen huge popular movements in the Ukraine, Georgia, Russia, Syria, Hong Kong, the so-called Arab Spring, etc.  In some cases, the protests have led to an overthrow of the dictator.  But, as Albrecht Müller has "discovered", these protest movements have nothing to do with aspirations of the people for a more open, representative, liberal democracy.  Rather, they are all sham movements manipulated by the CIA in the cynical goal of expanding American imperialist interests.  

Albrecht Müller has dissected the methodology used in every instance by a small group of organizers funded by the CIA or organizations affiliated with the CIA:

• Man diskreditiere einen Staatschef als Autokrat, Diktator oder Tyrann – unabhängig davon, ob er gewählt wurde oder nicht.
• Man werfe ihm Korruption, Wahlfälschung und andere Verbrechen vor.
• Man wähle ein einprägsames Symbol, zum Beispiel eine Rose, eine Tulpe, eine Farbe oder eine Faust.
• Man schaffe ein Motto, man einige sich auf Slogans. Im Falle Jugoslawiens mit Milosevic waren das: „Er ist fertig“. „Es ist Zeit.“ – Im Falle Putins und Russlands hieß es: „Putin kaputt“.
• Man organisiere emotional aufwühlende und medienwirksame Demonstrationen.
• Man achte darauf, dass die Kampagne spielerisch, unterhaltsam und unprofessionell wirkt, und auch darauf, dass die Zielpersonen des Regime Change der Lächerlichkeit preisgegeben werden.
• „Sie sind die Kinder von Gandhi, Gates und Coca-Cola – und die Helden von heute“,
• Die Strategien der Revolutions-GmbH wurden aus den Werbe- und Verkaufspraktiken der Multis abgeleitet. Merke: Wo Demokratie draufsteht, sind Heuschrecken drin.

1.   ("you label the head of state an autocrat, dictator or tyrant - regardless of whether he was elected nor not)
2. You accuse him of corruption, election fraud, and other crimes.
3. You pick out a memorable symbol, as, for example, a rose, a tulip, a color or a fist.
4. You come up with a motto or slogan.  In the case of Milosevic it was "He's done", "It's time", in the case of Putin it was "Putin kaputt."
5. You organize emotionally stirring, media-impactful demonstrations.
6. You carefully make the campaign playful so it seems unprofessional and enjoyable to watch while making the target appear ridiculous.
7. "They are the children of Gandhi, Gates and Coca-Cola - and the heroes of today"
8. The strategies of the "Revolution Incorporated" are derived from the advertising campaigns of multi-national corporations. On the outside - democracy, inside - big capital.)

So how did Albrecht Müller uncover this insidious American plot to spread democracy?  Did he interview former CIA agents, speak with Edward Snowden, receive secret documents from Wikileaks? No, all of this explosive information comes from a 2005 article in Der Spiegel.  This is rather odd, since normally Albrecht Müller accuses Der Spiegel as being part of the Lügenpresse - the "liar press", controlled by the CIA.  

So how did Der Spiegel sneak this information by its American censors and paymasters?   And why isn't the media using this information as it reports on the Ukraine crisis today? 

That, my friends, is yet another conspiracy that Albrecht Müller has uncovered - a "conspiracy of silence".  See "Verschweigen als Methode der Meinungmache". 

German public will not support NATO, but the United States will

The results of this recent survey must have made Vladimir Putin very happy indeed:

A survey published by the Pew Research Center on Wednesday showed that the majority of Germans would be against their country using military means to defend a Nato ally against Russian aggression. Despite the notion that an attack on one is an attack on all being enshrined as Clause 5 in the Nato Charter, 58 percent of Germans said they would be against helping a Nato member on the border with Russia militarily.Only 38 percent of Germans said they would agree with the triggering of clause 5 under such circumstances.

Fortunately for the people of Estonia, Latvia and Poland the majority of Americans (and Canadians) DO support NATO and Clause 5.  And the United States is prepared to show its support not just with words:

In a significant move to deter possible Russian aggression in Europe, the Pentagon is poised to store battle tanks, infantry fighting vehicles and other heavy weapons for as many as 5,000 American troops in several Baltic and Eastern European countries, American and allied officials say.[...]It would be the most prominent of a series of moves the United States and NATO have taken to bolster forces in the region and send a clear message of resolve to allies and to Russia’s president, Vladimir V. Putin, that the United States would defend the alliance’s members closest to the Russian frontier.

This move by the US was condemned by many on the Left as a "provocation"; among the critics are Sahra Wagenknecht, Putin's representative in the Bundestag, and Jakob "Appease Putin Now!" Augstein, columnist for Der Spiegel.  Still, there were a few brave souls, such as Clemens Wergin, who dared to express appreciation for the US acting against Russian aggression in the region:  

Europa hat es sich komfortabel eingerichtet mit seiner verfrühten Friedensdividende und seinem latenten Antiamerikanismus. Doch die Wahrheit ist, dass Europa ohne Amerika als Sicherheitsgarant nicht in der Lage ist, Russlands imperialen Gelüsten glaubhaft die Stirn zu bieten.

 ("Europe feels good about itself with its premature peace dividend and its latent Antiamericanism. But the reality is that without America's guaranty of security Europe would hardly be in the position to counter Russia's imperial designs.") 

Anti-American Forum May 2, 2015 in Pleisweiler-Oberhofen

The influential anti-American Web site NachDenkSeiten is inviting its readers to a forum on the United States and its pernicious influence on Germany and Europe: "Europa im Visier der Supermacht USA“ ("Europe in the Cross-Hairs of Superpower USA").  You can access the invitation here.

Albrecht Müller, editor of the NachDenkSeiten, exhorts his faithful readers to attend this forum, since it deals with "the central issue of our time" ("ein zentrales Problem unserer Zeit").

Da geht es um TTIP und die politisch erleichterte Übernahme hiesiger Betriebe im Zuge der sogenannten Auflösung der Deutschland AG, um die einflussreiche US-Lobby in Brüssel, um den Geleitzug von EU- und NATO-Osterweiterung und um den Ukraine-Konflikt

The point about Americans "taking over" German businesses ("Übernahme hiesiger Betriebe") is especially silly when one considers that far more German groups are buying up American companies (see my blog post:"German companies on a US shopping spree" ) in view of the favorable economic growth outlook for the US economy.  Yet I am not aware of any anti-German conferences planned anywhere in the United States. 

At the May 2 forum, Herr Muller wants to discuss a several items, including a recent speech made by the playwright Rolf Hochhuth about how the United States is doing everything it can to provoke World War III with Russia, which will result in a nuclear annihilation of Germany. His evidence?  US troops were involved in a Nato maneuver in Estonia, close to the Russian border. No mention of Russian provocation in sending troops and weapons into eastern Ukraine - nor, of course, of the military Anschluss of Crimea.  You can read Hochhuth's bizarre speech here.

Another important document Muller wants to discuss is a letter from Lt.Colonel Marek Obrtel,M.D, a reservist in the Czech army.  The letter is basically a rant against the United States and against NATO, which Dr. Obrtel calls a "criminal organization" : (note, grammatical  errors contained in the translation)

Though when I found about about the true purpose of NATO and how it serves the USA, how it is used to enforce their own power concerns, how much innocent blood NATO has on their hands I decided to sacrifice my own promising military career and left the army. When (again) purposely ignited conflict in Ukraine [...] escalated I decided to return all my NATO medals and called this organization criminal.

Yes, this is indeed a letter that demands serious attention. 

The forum will conclude with a breakout session concerning the glorious cultural and economic blossoming of Crimea since its liberation by Russia and its brilliant leader - Vladimir Putin. (/snark)

America's Shame / Amerikas Schande

The US Senate Intelligence Committee Report on torture is frontpage news in Germany (and everywhere else).  It confirms our worst fears about what the Bush administration did in the post-2/911 era.

As Der Spiegel's Markus Feldenkirchen states in his commentary, this is America's Shame:

Dass Amerikas Ansehen in der Welt heute auf einem historischen Tiefstand ist, ist nicht die Schuld "der Islamisten" oder "der Anti-Amerikanisten" in Europa oder anderen Teilen der Welt. Schuld ist vor allen anderen Amerika selbst. Es ist das Werk von Regierungsbehörden wie CIA und NSA, die Menschen folterten und ein Überwachungssystem errichteten, das einer freien Gesellschaft unwürdig ist. Ob sie dies im expliziten Auftrag der Regierung taten oder im Laufe der Jahre ein Eigenleben entwickelten und ihrer Regierung einzelne Vorfälle verschwiegen, ist dabei sekundär. Die geistigen Väter der Eskapaden waren Präsident George W. Bush und sein Vize Dick Cheney.

(The fact that America's reputation in the world is at a low-point today is not the fault of the "Islamists" or Europe's "Anti-Americans" or elsewhere in the world. America has only itself to blame. It is the result of the work of government agencies like the CIA and NSA, who tortured people and created a giant surveillance aparatus - unworthy of a free society. Whether these were carried out under express orders of the government or, over time, developed a momentum on their own and was hidden from oversight is secondary.  The spritual fathers of these escapades were President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.)

I'm not a great fan of Senator John McCain, but I am proud of his speech on the Senate floor yesterday endorsing the findings of the report.  He is the sole member of the US Senate who can speak with authority on torture.  (Transcript and Video here)

If there is a silver lining or positive aspect about the release of this "report of shame" it was pointed out today by Gabor Steingart in his Handelsblatt Morning Briefing: 

Obama hat diesen zunächst als streng vertraulich klassifizierten Bericht zur Veröffentlichung freigegeben. Das allerdings verdient Respekt: Es gibt kein zweites Land auf der Welt, das so schonungslos mit sich selbst umgeht.

German author slams US, praises Russia in new book

Wolgang Bittner is known primarily for his works of fiction.  But, since the crisis in the Ukraine began earlier this year, he has become an expert on the United States and its relationship with Europe and Russia.  Bittner's book Die Eroberung Europas durch die USA ("The Conquest of Europe by the US") describes how the US engineered a "fascist coup" in Kiev and has purposely driven a wedge between Europe and its natural ally Russia.  For Bittner, the US is the source of all evil in the world, and through its covert operations forced Russia to defend its "sphere of influence" and annex Crimea.  The people of the Ukraine were manipulated by a $5 billion secret CIA program to demand Western-style press freedom, open markets and self-determination. (BTW, Politfact has debunked the myth that US spent $5 billion destabilizing the Ukraine.) The jounalists of the mainstream German press all belong to Think Tanks secretly controlled by the CIA - hence their hostility to Putin.

For Wolfgang Bittner, the United States is a "Horror Scene":

Spätestens nach dem 11. September 2001 ist eine Schranke der Rechtsstaatlichkeit gefallen. Die US-amerikanische Gesellschaft ist zerrüttet, ihre Regierung schon lange nicht mehr in der Lage, Wohlstand für die Mehrheit zu schaffen und Gerechtigkeit für alle möglich zu machen.Unfassbar hohe Mordzahlen, ein gigantisches Drogenproblem, ein marodes, völlig überteuertes Gesundheitssystem, eine kaputte Infrastruktur, Schulen, die den Namen nicht verdienen, offener Rassismus, unkontrollierte Polizeigewalt, ganze Bevölkerungsschichten, die außerhalb der Armee kaum noch eine Perspektive haben – dies alles vor dem Hintergrund einer Staatsverschuldung, die niemals abgetragen werden kann. Ein Horrorszenario.

(Ever since September 11, 2001 the United States is no longer a nation under the rule of law. American society is dysfunctional, its government is no longer capable of providing prosperity for the majority and justice for all.  Incredibly high murder rate, a huge drug crisis, an ailing, expensive healthcare system, a broken infrastructure, schools not worthy of the name, open racism, uncontrolled police violence, broad spectrum of the population without any future outside of the military - all of this with the backdrop of a national debt that can never be repaid.  A horror scene.)

Wow, that's one depressing picture of the United States!  I'm tempted to get on the next Aeroflot jet to Moscow. I just never realized that I was living in Hell on Earth, and I'm grateful to Herr Bittner for enlightening me about my living situation. 

Here is Herr Bittner on Vladimir Putin's German propaganda channel RTDeutsch talking about his book, the United States, and how the German media is controlled by the CIA:

 

Latest German Conspiracy Theory: US Behind Hong Kong Protests

Tens of thousands of citizens take to the street to demand democracy and protest against authoritarian rule. You would think that left-leaning organizations would feel some solidarity with the citizens of Hong Kong.  In the case of the German left, you would be wrong. Once again, the prevailing view is that a protest movement of this size must be orchestrated by the United States

Zwischen [HongKong Aktivisten} und westlichen »Thinktanks« und NGOs bestehen enge Bande: Das US-finanzierte »Hong Kong America Center«, dem der hochrangige frühere US-Diplomat Morton Holbrook vorsteht, nimmt beispielsweise Einfluß auf die Lehrpläne an Schulen und Universitäten. Die chinesische Zeitung Wen Wei Po berichtete unlängst über Verbindungen von Joshua Wong, einem der Sprecher der Studentenproteste, zu US-Stellen: Wong, häufig auf Kosten seiner amerikanischen Freunde in Luxushotels in Macao zu Gast, soll gezielt zum »politischen Superstar« aufgebaut werden, so das Blatt. Auch dem Medienmogul Jimmy Lai, der einige regierungskritische Zeitungen herausgibt, werden Kontakte zur CIA nachgesagt.

(There are close ties between the activists and western Think Tanks and NGOs: the "Hong Kong America Center", financed by the US and led by the high-level US diplomat Morton Holbrook, has a strong influence on the lesson plans of schools and universities. The Chinese dally Wen Wei recently reported on the connections of Joshua Wong - a spokesperson for the student protests - to US groups: Wong, who can often be found staying at luxury hotels in Macao at the sot of his American friends, has been groomed to be a "political superstar."  Furthermore, the media mogul Jimmy Lai, who publishes several newspapers that are critical of the government, is said to have contacts with the CIA.)

Another left-wing newspapter - Die Linke Zeitung - is more explicit in accusing the US of orchestrating the mass demonstration:

Für eine Protest­be­we­gung, die behauptet für “Demokratie” zu ste­hen, die impliziert für den Willen der Men­schen zu ste­hen, hat diese Bewe­gung ein unpop­ulärer Pro­gramm, das von der großen Mehrheit der Hong Konger Bevölkerung klar abgelehnt wird – und bringt jetzt wichtige Teile der Insel zum Erliegen, hält die Bevölkerung und Sta­bil­ität der Gesellschaft als Geisel, um die eigene Agenda vor­wärts zu brin­gen. All dies wird orchestri­ert und unter­stützt von den Vere­inigten Staaten, dem Außen­min­is­terium und seinem Net­zw­erk des glob­alen Aufruhrs, das unter dem NED und ihrer Tochterge­sellschaft NDI operiert.

(For a protest movement that claims to stand for "Democracy", which supposedly reflects the will of the people, this movement has an unpopular program that is rejected by the majority of people in Hong Kong - and now has paralyzed critical sections of the island, holds hostage the population and social stability, just to advance their own agenda. All this is orchestrated by the United States, its State Department and its networks of global agitation which operates under the NED  (Naitonal Endowment for Democracy) and its subsidiary NDI (Non-Violent Initiative for Democracy).)

Why this hostility on the German left for these protestors?  It is all tied back to the Ukraine crisis and the German left's adulation of  Vladimir Putin.  It is an article of faith on the left that the Maidan demonstrations in Kiew had nothing to do with a genuine yearning by the Ukrainians for liberal western values and self-determination.  Rather, the hundreds of thousands of protestors were "fascists", manipulated by the CIA, who, furthermore shot down the Malaysian airliner  as part of a "false flag" operation to undermine Russia. 

What does the Occupy Central in Hong Kong have to do with the Ukraine or Russia?   Anne Applebaum explains in the Washington Post:

Curiously (or perhaps not), Russian state television, long accustomed to ascribing Russian and Ukrainian protests to American plots (even to Hillary Clinton personally) — has now settled on the same narrative. There is an additional, self-regarding twist: Russian commentators say Hong Kong protests are American revenge for China’s strong support for Russia in its struggle against Ukraine.

The German left, long aligned with Moscow, can always be counted on to uncritically parrot whatever Putin's propaganda machine disseminates.