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Fedsurrection: Cowboys vs. Yankees vs Patriots
With a title containing “Cowboys”, “Yankees” and “Patriots” it sounds
like a post about great sports dynasties, but it is actually about a recent podcast with Jack Posobiec and Mike Benz. In this podcast, Mike Benz, who is an “internet security expert” describes how US foreign policy is driven by two factions: the Yankees and the Cowboys.
The Yankees are the financial titans in New York and London. The Cowboys are the agrarian and military industries. Benz says that the factions use their political power and tools (sanctions for Yankees and military/regime change for Cowboys) to control foreign policy to their benefit. If a country is not cooperating with the American sugar industry, then they get an upgraded leader. If a country is not trading in dollars, then the financial hammer is dropped on them. He said it basically started with the Monroe Doctrine and continues to this day.
The Cowboys have evolved some by adding oil/energy to their set of titans and the Yankees have big tech/venture capital, but the tension between the Yankees and Cowboys has always existed. Sometimes this results in a Yankee president like JFK being replaced by a Cowboy like LBJ or vice versa with a Cowboy like Nixon getting replaced with a Yankee like Ford. There was never a war between them, but there was always a battle for preeminence in the State Department, CIA, and DOD.
Things changed in 2014, though. The usual color revolution technique failed in Crimea and was soon followed by Brexit and the election of Trump. Populism/democracy was a threat to their power and they joined forces to destroy the Patriots. Trump and his ilk would be run out of office, jailed, and bankrupted. The foreign policy makers would turn their weapons inward and engage in lawfare, censorship, and propaganda to restore the Order. Do you know what time it is?
I don’t know that Benz should be taken literally, but I think he provides a good metaphor for understanding the split nature of foreign policy and now domestic policy.
Published in General
We use words like “Neocon”. Sounds like the Cowboys to me.
I agree that the forces of the establishment joined to destroy Trump. And that includes Conservatism, Inc. Cowboys, aren’t they?
It’s so funny. I don’t love Trump. I’d love someone else. Trump is who we have.
Sounds like what started with Jefferson and Hamilton, well, maybe not Jefferson but some of his cohort.
Everything old is new again.
I remember reading about the Yankee and Cowboy conflict about 50 years ago.
Oglesby graduated from the University of Michigan (go blue!) where he joined a commie like organization. He is credited with coining the term “Global South”, which we hear a lot these days. Wikipedia had this link to a speech summarizing the book. The book can be read here.
I Don’t ever trust folks who label themselves “Patriots.”
It’s funny it always seems to be the people who are the most miserable, disgruntled, and disappointed in our country who don the mantle “Patriot.”
Ten years ago it was “protest is the highest form of Patriotism,” coming from the left, and now it’s the con men in the alt-right populist space that are pushing this junk.
Interesting. Care to name names? If nobody claiming to be a patriot can be trusted, then we can’t have patriots. That seems bad. I do think we should be skeptical of people making claims and we should judge people by their fruits.
Thanks for the link! The book appears, at least to me, as a rebuke of sorts to None Dare Call it Conspiracy and None Dare Call it Treason. So… I concluded the author’s a pinko kook – confirmed as he favorably mentions Bill Clinton’s hero, Professor Carroll Quigley. I’m surprised, though, that I didn’t run across Cowboy and Yankee War in my “find and read every paperback you can” phase 35 years ago. I’m disappointed and feel like I’m late to the party as this seems like I didn’t get the in-joke – but now I do… obviously Benz and Co. are well-read and will garner more of my attention.
This is all new to me, so I am really late to the party. I read Eisenhower’s farewell address about being weary of the Military Industrial Complex and the Technology/University Industrial Complex. I never considered them as competing factions. I just assumed that Ike was discussing his two previous jobs.