US NED 2021 - Thailand: More Money, More Sedition

February 28, 2021 (Brian Berletic - LD) - The US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) has updated its list for programs, organizations, and companies that it is funding in Thailand to interfere in Thailand's internal political affairs. This includes US government funding for companies that interfered in Thailand's 2019 general election. 

I explain how the NED's board of directors is made up of people who promote wars and regime change merely behind the smokescreen of "promoting democracy" and "freedom." I show which fronts the US has increased funding for as well as new fronts the US is now funding inside of Thailand. 

I also show how the US NED through programs and companies that it funded interfered in Thailand's 2019 general election on behalf of the US-backed billionaire opposition leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit and his "Future Forward Party."

References: 

US National Endowment for Democracy (NED) - Board of Directors: 

https://www.ned.org/about/board-of-directors/

US NED - Scott Carpenter: 

https://www.ned.org/experts/scott-carpenter/

US NED - Thailand (2020):

https://www.ned.org/region/asia/thailand-2020/

US NED - Thailand (2019):

https://www.ned.org/region/asia/thailand-2019/

US NED - Thailand (2019) on Wayback Machine: 

https://web.archive.org/web/20201103163813/https://www.ned.org/region/asia/thailand-2019/

PunchUp World - About: 

https://punchup.world/about/

Thanisara Ruangdej on LinkedIn:

https://th.linkedin.com/in/thanisara-r

PunchUp World - Projects (page 3): 

https://punchup.world/project/page/3/

Elect.in.th - About:

https://elect.in.th/about/

Elect.in.th - Projects: 

https://elect.in.th/civictech/chapter04.html

Boonmee Lab - Team: 

https://www.boonmeelab.com/team/

US Embassy Bangkok - Boonmeelab/YouPin Founder Thiti Luang (2017): 

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1462398380447966

YouPin Organizes Future Forward “Hackathon” (2018):

https://www.facebook.com/youpin.city/posts/689416398079773

Brian Berletic, formally known under the pen name "Tony Cartalucci" is a geopolitical researcher, writer, and video producer (YouTube here and BitChute here) based in Bangkok, Thailand. He is a regular contributor to New Eastern Outlook and more recently, 21st Century Wire. You can support his work via Patreon here. 

Thailand to Regulate Abusive Foreign-Funded NGOs

February 28, 2021 (Brian Berletic - LD) - US government-funded fronts posing as NGOs in Thailand have long undermined the image and role of legitimate nongovernmental organizations.   

New legislation has been proposed in Thailand to create more transparency regarding the foreign funding of NGOs in Thailand and to regulate their activities to ensure they fall within the real of non-profit organizations working for the public benefit rather than abusive fronts merely posing as such.

References: 

Bangkok Post - Govt to regulate all NGOs:
https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2073783/govt-to-regulate-all-ngos
National Endowment for Democracy - Thailand (2019):
https://www.ned.org/region/asia/thailand-2019/
Prachatai - About Us:

https://prachatai.com/english/about
LD - Why Taking US NED Money is Wrong:
https://landdestroyer.blogspot.com/2020/11/why-taking-us-ned-money-is-wrong.html

Brian Berletic, formally known under the pen name "Tony Cartalucci" is a geopolitical researcher, writer, and video producer (YouTube here and BitChute here) based in Bangkok, Thailand. He is a regular contributor to New Eastern Outlook and more recently, 21st Century Wire. You can support his work via Patreon here. 

Biden's First Foreign Policy Speech Vows Forever Wars

February 27, 2021 (Brian Berletic - NEO) - US foreign policy has clearly continued in the same direction, without missing a beat. Unlike in previous transitions in the White House, this time US President Joe Biden has not even really tried to promise even the faintest hope that it wouldn't. 

There were a few glimpses of remote hope - particularly regarding the possibility the US wouldn't abandon its last arms treaty with Russia, New START (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty) - and Biden's promise of returning to the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), also known as the Iran Nuclear Deal. 

However, in Biden's first speech regarding foreign policy since taking office, now posted on the White House's official website and titled, "Remarks by President Biden on America’s Place in the World," reveals that, if anything, US belligerence on the global stage is set to only expand. 

"America is back.  Diplomacy is back at the center of our foreign policy." 

Biden's opening remarks attempt to suggest that America has drifted away under his predecessor US President Donald Trump. But when he says "America is back," we are left to assume he means "back" to what the US was doing under the administration of US President Barack Obama under which he served as vice president. 

This was a president elected into office by the American people to end the wars of his predecessor, US President George W. Bush. Not only did he fail to end those wars - one in Iraq and one in Afghanistan - he expanded both. He also started several new wars including in Libya, Syria, and Yemen. 

Under the administration of Obama-Biden, the US also overthrew the government of Ukraine in 2014 precipitating deadly violence in the nation's eastern region. 

Obama also continued Bush-era policies aimed at overthrowing the government of Venezuela and instituted the so-called US "pivot" to Asia in which US meddling was expanded in a bid to peel Southeast Asian states away from China's orbit - or create an arc of chaos to disrupt China's rise, trying. 

And in Biden's recent foreign policy speech - he has vowed to continue all of this. 

The Significance of China Surpassing US as EU's Top Trade Partner

February 25, 2021 (Brian Berletic - NEO) - Over the course of last year, China surpassed the United States as the European Union's top trade partner. It was significant news and noted as such across Chinese media. 

But in the West, this news was somewhat muted. 

One of the few articles featuring this news comes from Politico titled, "China topples US as EU’s top trade partner over 2020," and notes that: 

In 2020, exports of EU goods to China increased by 2.2 percent and imports went up 5.6 percent, while EU trade with the rest of the world dramatically dropped (down 9.4 percent in term of exports, and down 11.6 percent in terms imports compared with 2019). The pandemic severely hit transatlantic trade, with exports of European goods to the U.S. falling by 8.2 percent year-on-year. Imports fell 13.2 percent.

As a result, the U.S. is no longer the bloc's top commercial partner and has been replaced by China. EU exports to China in 2020 amounted to €202.5 billion while imports reached €383.5 billion.

Not only had China surpassed the US as the EU's top trading partner, it did so with a net surplus with Europe. 

While the article attempts to blame the COVID-19 crisis for the development - and while the US and China may, over the course of the next few years, exchange places as the EU's top trade partner, China's growing trade with Europe and the fact that it is on par with, and at times surpassing that of the United States - is just one of many metrics indicating the inevitability of China's rise as the world's largest and most powerful economy. 

America's "Solution" to a Non-Problem 

Washington and Wall Street's answer to China's growing economic clout has been a multifaceted strategy of encirclement and  containment involving an ongoing trade war, sanctions, propaganda, and political subversion both within China in places like Taiwan, Hong Kong, Xinjiang, and Tibet, as well as along China's peripheries especially in Southeast Asia where the US is backing protests seeking to oust Beijing-friendly governments and replace them with Western-leaning client regimes. Thailand and now Myanmar both face such protests. 

BBC, Reuters Caught Running Secret IO

February 24, 2021 (Brian Berletic - LD) - Leaked documents reveal the BBC and Reuters received secret British government contracts to interfere politically both inside Russia and in nations along Russia’s borders. It is a documented case in reality of everything (and worse) the West has accused Russia of doing in unfounded fiction.

I explain how media organizations like the BBC and Reuters serve more as extensions of Western intelligence services - using journalism as a cover and how they constitute a national security threat to every nation they operate in around the globe.

References:

The Grayzone - Reuters, BBC, and Bellingcat participated in covert UK Foreign Office-funded programs to “weaken Russia,” leaked docs reveal:
https://thegrayzone.com/2021/02/20/reuters-bbc-uk-foreign-office-russian-media/

The New Atlas - Soros Leaks Fallout: FCCT President, Members Lied about Open Society Ties:
http://www.thenewatlas.org/2016/08/soros-leaks-fallout-fcct-president.html

Brian Berletic, formally known under the pen name "Tony Cartalucci" is a geopolitical researcher, writer, and video producer (YouTube here and BitChute here) based in Bangkok, Thailand. He is a regular contributor to New Eastern Outlook and more recently, 21st Century Wire. You can support his work via Patreon here.