It's Not Nice To Dis The Lizard People

I think we're seeing a puzzling phenomenon, which appears to be a schism within the lizard people. If I apply the sort of populist sociopolitical analysis pioneered by Ferdinand Lundberg and C Wright Mills, the best-credentialed member of the power elite currently in Washington is Secretary of State Antony Blinken, member of a wealthy and powerful upper-class family that's had political influence for at least two generations, but possibly more. His close ally is Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, with whom he has been and continues to be a partner in Pine Island Capital Partners, a "strategic partner" of Blinken's WestExec, a geopolitical consulting firm "comparable to Kissinger Associates".

Although Austin initially implemented predictable Biden policies like enforcing COVID measures in the armed forces and discouraging "extremist" views among members, since Putin's invasion of Ukraine, his near-exclusive focus has been managing US military policy vis-s-vis the Russia-Ukraine War in close concert with Secretary Blinken. This policy seems to be an an evolutionary development of State Department Russian policy originated by the younger George Kennan, an Averell Harriman protege; Kennan's great uncle, the elder George Kennan, had been a Russian adviser to Averell's father, the rail magnate Edward Harriman.

Thus we're seeing at least one faction of the lizard people following the generational pattern that's been analyzed by Lundberg, and in this instance among others, the motive is to follow the money -- and here, I can't disagree. We can complain that the 19th century robber barons got rich, but in getting rich, they inevitably promoted the general prosperity. Indeed, in the best cases, their descendants behaved prudently to preserve the family fortunes in the political environment via figures like Rockefeller Jr and the aforementioned Averell Harriman.

I think Blinken and the faction of the lizard people he represents have similar motives to the gilded-age robber barons, who among other things saw a capability in integrating the post-Civil War South into the northeastern US industrial economy. I think they see the same opportunities in Ukraine, and for that matter Belarus, Kaliningrad, and western Russia, which will be good for them and oh by the way good for the people in those regions. But being lizard people, you'd better not stand in their way.

Thus we see the congressional progressive caucus getting spanked:

'Progressive' Democrats have been slammed for penning an open letter to Joe Biden calling on him to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine with Vladimir Putin.

Thirty left-wing politicians - among them Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar - wrote to Biden on Monday saying that 'direct talks with Russia' to 'seek a rapid end to the conflict' should be his 'top priority'.

. . . That suggestion caused fury in Ukraine, with journalist Anastasiia Lapatina tweeting that 'Russia does not accept a sovereign Ukraine - how many times does this have to be reiterated?'

But they were quickly forced to "clarify":

The Congressional Progressive Caucus on Monday evening sought to couch a statement from earlier in the day requesting that President Biden shift his administration’s policies on Ukraine and start some form of negotiations with Russia.

. . . Several hours after the letter, which was first reported by The Washington Post, was released, the caucus sent a rare follow-up statement intended to fine-tune its original message.

“In a letter to President Biden today, my colleagues and I advocated for the administration to continue ongoing military and economic support for Ukrainians while pursuing diplomatic support to Ukraine to ensure we are helpful partners on efforts to reach ‘a solution that is acceptable to the people of Ukraine,” wrote [caucus chair Pramila] Jayapal.

. . . The initial correspondence was met with skepticism from some Democrats who questioned Jayapal’s leadership and motivation for calling for a new strategy. She sought to tweak her caucus’s stance, reaffirming her commitment to Biden’s foreign policy at a time when the party is facing divides over ideology and messaging on a number of fronts ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

Wait a moment -- isn't the Squad running the show? How can the party be "facing divides"? The story stresses,

The letter comes just two weeks before Election Day as Democrats struggle to find an economic message that resonates with voters.

but I don't think the election is the real issue -- the issue is the agenda, in which at this point the key priority is integrating western Russia and its remaining buffer states into the Western industrial economy. This opportunity arose after the 2020 election, and indeed in some measure as a result of it, when Putin and likely Xi miscalculated over who was running the US. They thought it was Biden.

That was a mistake.

UPDATE: The Progressive Caucus has gone farther and completely withdrawn the letter. I don't believe even Speaker Pelosi could have forced this. It came from whomever is actually running things.