From carl at newsfromneptune.com Wed Feb 2 05:28:00 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2022 23:28:00 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: 'What I Would Have Told Newsy' - RPI 1 February Update References: Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Daniel McAdams/RPI > Subject: 'What I Would Have Told Newsy' - RPI 1 February Update > Date: February 1, 2022 at 7:16:35 PM CST > To: > Reply-To: Daniel McAdams/RPI > > View this email in your browser > > > No unapproved opinions allowed! > What I Would Have Said to Newsy > Dear Friends: > > I got cancelled. > > It's not for anything I said, but for what I might have said. I might have told the truth about the Biden Administration's insane push to war over Ukraine to an American audience steeped in mainstream media gaslighting. I might have mentioned that there is zero US national interest in who governs Ukraine. This crook or that one ...who cares? > > Let me back up a bit. Earlier today I got a message from the gentleman who helps us out with media bookings. A nationwide news outlet is looking for someone to do six minutes live on Russian President Putin's remarks about the US response to a Russian security proposal, he wrote. Was I interested? > > Washington and its obedient lapdog press have been pushing war with Russia over Ukraine for weeks and I thought I might be able to provide just a couple of gentle counter-points to the narrative. While Newsy , the requester, is not a network I was familiar with, it is owned by the E. W. Scripps Company, which is a billion dollar media organization. So I said "yes." > > The hit time was coming up. I set up the camera and the lighting and changed out of my gym clothes. And waited. > > And waited. > > At the last minute a call came in from our PR guy. He sounded a bit apologetic. "Well, here's the thing, they said they don't want anything 'political' so they are cancelling the segment." > > "Are they cancelling the story, or just cancelling me as a guest?" I asked. > > "Well," he said, "all the news outlets are being really weird right now about the Russia thing and they don't seem interested in a 'pro-freedom' message." > > Shocker! (Not). > > That exchange was a fascinating bit of insight into how the media manipulates the message rather than provides information for the consumer. They don't tell you what's going on: they tell you what to think about what is going on. > > So somewhere in that approximately ten minutes between my accepting the media request and the cancellation some alarm bells must have gone off somewhere. "We CAN'T have anyone like THAT on our network! They're the WRONG type of people!" > > So Americans will never hear anyone tell them that the "massing Russian troops" are actually inside of Russia's borders. And that the real "massing" is US and UK governments sending massive weapons shipments to Ukraine. Another half-billion dollars in weapons - including missiles - was approved by the US government, and US and UK military are on the ground helping train Ukrainians how best to use those weapons to kill Russians. > > No one will ever tell their viewers that it is absurdly unlikely that the Russian military will launch an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine because it would make absolutely no sense. One does not need be a Putin apologist to recognize that Russian foreign policy is far more conservative than the endless interventionism that characterizes US foreign policy. > > When a (likely US-backed) coup was launched in strategically critical Kazakhstan last month, Putin responded to a request for military assistance from its CSTO ally and sent peacekeepers. They were gone within a week. Compare that to the 20 year US occupation of Afghanistan and the near-20 year US military presence in Iraq. And let's not talk about the continued illegal US military presence on sovereign Syrian territory. > > We've got at least 750 military bases overseas...how many do the Russians have? > > Biden last Friday told Ukrainian President Zelensky to "take cover" because the Russians were about to "sack Kiev" any minute. No one even asked: what would they do with it once they owned it? Who wants Kiev? Even Zelensky had to tell Biden to take his meds . Of course it was a bogus tip. Nothing happened. > > No Newsy viewer will hear anyone draw this analogy: What if the shoe was on the other foot? What if an extremely hostile Mexico, which not long ago had an anti-US regime in power and armed to the hilt by China, hosted Chinese troops training Mexicans how to re-take California and Texas? Washington wouldn't move a couple of troops around inside the US? > > And if they did, would it be "aggression"? > > No one will hear anyone pointing out that the Biden Administration - with plenty of hawkish Republicans in tow - is pursuing a policy that is in no way in America's national interest, that in no way makes any sense, and that could very well backfire and get millions of people killed for nothing. No one will hear anyone tell them the truth: there are few things that matter less to the US and its security than who governs Ukraine. > > "Ah," I told our PR person, "I see how it is. It's just like the run-up to war with Iraq, when the media didn't want to have anyone on air saying that Saddam didn't have WMDs and that attacking Iraq would be a foolish disaster." > > "Yep," he said. > > That way they can all in unison assure us when it all goes to hell that "nobody could have guessed it would turn out that way!" > > This is the US media in a nutshell. > > As an ironic postscript, no sooner had I pressed my shirt and prepped for my aborted Newsy appearance than I got a call from RT in Moscow eager to hear my take on the exact topic originally requested by Newsy. I would have told both outlets the same thing, but here in "free press" USA they didn't want Americans to hear it. > > Approved positions only. Freedom! > > Sincerely yours, > > Daniel McAdams > Executive Director > Ron Paul Institute for Peace and Prosperity > > > > > Bitcoin: > > 3GBe2oTXNxa7vUjRKAz6B2YNNo7ADyppq9 > > Recent Ron Paul Institute Publications > > Canada's Trudeau Refuses To Meet With 'Nazi' Truckers > by Daniel McAdams > > Questions for the January 6 Committee > by Peter Van Buren > > We Are Winning the Battle Against Covid Tyranny > by Lew Rockwell > > Canada's Freedom Convoy Is A Worldwide Political Tsunami > by Daniel McAdams > > We Are All Canadian Truckers Now! > by Ron Paul > > The Pressure Campaign on Spotify to Remove Joe Rogan Reveals the Religion of Liberals: Censorship > by Matt Taibbi > > Now is the Time for Mass Resignations from Within the Ruling Class > by Jeff Tucker > > Censorship By Algorithm Does Far More Damage Than Conventional Censorship > by Caitlin Johnstone > > America?s Armed ?Sentinel State? Encirclement > by Alastair Crooke > > The Cold War Racket Never Ended for the US > by Jacob Hornberger > > Justin Trudeau Ducks the Great Trucker Revolt > by Jeffrey Tucker > > US Surgeon General: Silence Joe Rogan! > by Daniel McAdams > > Study: Sixty-Five Percent of College Students Believe that They Cannot Speak Freely on Campus > by Jonathan Turley > > What happened to the mRNA 'miracle'? > by Jordan Schachtel > > Pentagon Vs. State: Biden Team At War With Itself Over Russia-Ukraine Invasion Narrative > by Daniel McAdams > > Stop the Neocons From Starting a War! > by Eric Margolis > > Pentagon on Russia Invasion: 'Just Kidding' > by Daniel McAdams > > Biden's Ukrainian Albatross > by Daniel McAdams > > Mask-pushing California Politicians Being Hypocritical Again > by Adam Dick > > Americans? Rejection of Coronavirus Shots Is a Reason for Hope for the Country > by Adam Dick > > Judge Enjoins President Biden?s Vaccine Mandate for US Government Employees > by Adam Dick > > Bipartisanship: US House Races MASSIVE Ukraine Weapons Transfer to the Floor! > by Daniel McAdams > Copyright ? 2022 The Ron Paul Institute, All rights reserved. > You are receiving this message because you have subscribed to Ron Paul/FREE. > Our mailing address is: > 833 W. Plantation Dr., Clute, TX 77531 > > unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Wed Feb 2 23:10:11 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Wed, 2 Feb 2022 17:10:11 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Pointing out Apple's slave labor should probably not be done by people not pushing you to "transfer cash to Apple" In-Reply-To: <6f41449e-8c63-5329-7697-92986acd1c34@forestfield.org> References: <6f41449e-8c63-5329-7697-92986acd1c34@forestfield.org> Message-ID: I wrote: > It's disappointing to see that Greenwald is using Callin, a service where "live > shows can be heard only with an iPhone and the Callin app ? the app will be very > shortly available on Androids for universal use" because Greenwald is effectively > pushing his audience (to some degree) toward getting an iPhone. This is a clear > break with the sharp and largely correct criticism of Apple he put in the same > article. > > It's hard to know what to recommend to Greenwald as a replacement until we know > what he gets out of being on Callin and why he rejected other solutions. Big Blue > Button (https://bigbluebutton.org/), Jitsi (https://jitsi.org/), and Jami > (https://jami.net/) are free software chat apps that might be useful instead > because they work with all of the major OSes (desktop & mobile). It looks like Glenn Greenwald is now (as of today, 2022-02-02) chastising David Crosby for "forcing anyone who wants to listen to [Crosby's music] to transfer their cash to Apple, while they are linked to multiple instances of profiting from *slave labor*, reveals a lot about whose lives are valued and whose aren't." per https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/status/1488972631382667267 which I saw via Jimmy Dore's pointer to that post. But Callin, Greenwald's chosen service for doing live shows, also pushes people to get a device that can run iOS which is the only operating system where Callin runs. There might be plans to port Callin to other OSes but that hasn't happened yet, as far as I know. Therefore the only such device is an Apple device which means "transfer[ing] their cash to Apple". -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Screenshot 2022-02-02 at 16-48-20 Jimmy Dore ( jimmy_dore).png Type: image/png Size: 189034 bytes Desc: not available URL: From r-szoke at illinois.edu Fri Feb 4 21:12:03 2022 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 21:12:03 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?windows-1252?q?G=2EO=2EP=2E_Declares_Jan=2E_6_?= =?windows-1252?q?Attack_=91Legitimate_Political_Discourse=92?= Message-ID: The Republican National Committee voted to censure Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the inquiry into the deadly riot at the Capitol. NYT Feb. 4, 2022 By Jonathan Weisman and Reid J. Epstein WASHINGTON ? The Republican Party on Friday officially declared the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and events that led to it ?legitimate political discourse,? and rebuked two lawmakers in the party who have been most outspoken in condemning the deadly riot and the role of Donald J. Trump in spreading the election lies that fueled it. The Republican National Committee?s voice vote to censure Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City culminated more than a year of vacillation, which started with party leaders condemning the Capitol attack and Mr. Trump?s conduct, then shifted to downplaying and denying it. On Friday, the party went further in a resolution slamming Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger for taking part in the House investigation of the assault, saying they were participating in ?persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.? After the vote, party leaders rushed to clarify that language, saying it was never meant to apply to rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in Mr. Trump?s name. ?- From r-szoke at illinois.edu Fri Feb 4 21:12:03 2022 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 21:12:03 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?windows-1252?q?G=2EO=2EP=2E_Declares_Jan=2E_6_?= =?windows-1252?q?Attack_=91Legitimate_Political_Discourse=92?= Message-ID: The Republican National Committee voted to censure Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger for participating in the inquiry into the deadly riot at the Capitol. NYT Feb. 4, 2022 By Jonathan Weisman and Reid J. Epstein WASHINGTON ? The Republican Party on Friday officially declared the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol and events that led to it ?legitimate political discourse,? and rebuked two lawmakers in the party who have been most outspoken in condemning the deadly riot and the role of Donald J. Trump in spreading the election lies that fueled it. The Republican National Committee?s voice vote to censure Representatives Liz Cheney of Wyoming and Adam Kinzinger of Illinois at its winter meeting in Salt Lake City culminated more than a year of vacillation, which started with party leaders condemning the Capitol attack and Mr. Trump?s conduct, then shifted to downplaying and denying it. On Friday, the party went further in a resolution slamming Ms. Cheney and Mr. Kinzinger for taking part in the House investigation of the assault, saying they were participating in ?persecution of ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.? After the vote, party leaders rushed to clarify that language, saying it was never meant to apply to rioters who violently stormed the Capitol in Mr. Trump?s name. ?- From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Feb 4 21:23:40 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 15:23:40 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: The Year of the Tiger Starts with a Sino-Russian Bang References: <20220204150108.1.BC8599E6AB40FF95@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: <7BB65D17-004A-494A-B3D2-AC1DDF094C86@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Pepe Escobar / The Unz Review > Subject: The Year of the Tiger Starts with a Sino-Russian Bang > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > > The Unz Review ? An Alternative Media Selection Subscribe > A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media > The Year of the Tiger Starts with a Sino-Russian Bang Pepe Escobar ? Thursday, February 3, 2022 ? 1,600 Words > > The Year of the Black Water Tiger will start, for all practical purposes, with a Beijing bang this Friday, as Presidents Xi Jinping and Vladimir Putin, after a live meeting before the initial ceremony of the Winter Olympics, will issue a joint statement on international relations. > > That will represent a crucial move in the Eurasia vs. NATOstan chessboard, as the Anglo-American axis is increasingly bogged down in Desperation Row: after all, ?Russian aggression? stubbornly refuses to materialize. > > After an interminable wait arguably due to the lack of functionaries properly equipped to write an intelligible letter, the US/NATO combo finally concocted a predictable, jargon-drenched bureaucratese non-response ?response? to the Russian demands of security guarantees. > > The contents were leaked to a Spanish newspaper, a full member of NATOstan media. The leaker, according to Brussels sources, may be in Kiev by now. The Pentagon, in damage control mode, rushed to assert, ?We didn?t do it?. The State Dept. said, ?it?s authentic.? > > Even before the leak of the non-response ?response?, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov was forced to send messages to all NATO foreign ministers, including US Secretary Blinken, asking how they understand the principle of indivisibility of security ? if they actually do. > > Lavrov was extremely specific: ?I am referring to our demands that everyone faithfully implement the agreements on the indivisibility of security that were reached within the OSCE in 1999 in Istanbul and in 2010 in Astana. These agreements provide not only for the freedom to choose alliances, but also make this freedom conditional on the need to avoid any steps that will strengthen the security of any state at the expense of infringing on the security of others.? > > Lavrov hit the heart of the matter when he stressed, ?our Western colleagues are not simply trying to ignore this key principle of international law agreed in the Euro-Atlantic space, but to completely forget it.? > > Lavrov also made it very clear ?we will not allow this topic to be ?wrapped up?. We will insist on a honest conversation and an explanation of why the West does not want to fulfill its obligations at all or exclusively, selectively, and in its favor.? > > Crucially, China fully supports Russian demands for security guarantees in Europe, and fully agrees that the security of one state cannot be ensured by inflicting damage on another state. > > This is as serious as it gets: the US/NATO combo are bent on smashing two crucial treaties that directly concern European security, and they think they can get away with it because there is less than zero discussion about the content and its implications across NATOstan media. > > Western public opinion remains absolutely clueless. The only narrative, hammered 24/7, is ?Russian aggression? ? by the way duly emphasized in NATO?s non-response ?response?. > > Wanna check our military-technical gear? > > For the umpteenth time Moscow made it very clear it?s not going to make any concessions on the security demands just because the Empire of Chaos keeps threatening ? what else ? extra harsh sanctions, the sole imperial ?policy? short of outright bombing. > > The new sanctions package, anyway, is ready to go for quite a while now, arguably capable of cutting Moscow off from the Western financial system and/or casino, and targeting, among others, Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank and Alfa-Bank. > > And that brings us to what?s Moscow going to do next ? considering the predictable ?extremely negative attitude? (Lavrov) from NATOstan. Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko had already hinted NATO knows perfectly well what?s coming, even before the non-response ?response?: > > ?NATO knows perfectly well what kind of military-technical measures may follow from Russia. We make no secret of our possibilities and are acting very transparently.? > > Still the American ?partners? are not listening. The Russians remain unfazed. Grushko framed it in realpolitik terms: concrete measures will depend on the ?military potentials? that could be used against Russia. That?s code for what sort of nuclear weapons will be deployed in Eastern Europe, and what sort of lethal equipment will keep being unloaded in Ukraine. > > In fact Ukraine ? or country 404, per Andrei Martyanov?s indelible definition ? is just a lowly pawn in their (imperial) game. Adding to Kiev?s misery on all fronts, the head of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine, Alexei Danilov, all but gave away the (regional) game. > > In an interview to AP, Danilov said that ?the Minsk Agreements can create chaos?; he admitted that Kiev totally lost the war in 2014/15 and then signed the Minsk Agreements ?under threat of Russian arms? (false: Kiev was soundly defeated by the Donbass militias); but most of all he admitted Kiev never had any intention of fulfilling the Minsk Agreements. > > So Kiev, essentially, is breaking international law: the Minsk Agreements are guaranteed by the UN Security Council resolution 2022 (2015), adopted unanimously. Even the US, UK and France voted ?Yes?. So breaking the law is not hard to do, as long as you?re enabled by ?big powers?. > > And on that invisible ?Russian aggression?, well, even Danilov can?t see ?the readiness of Russian forces near the border for an invasion, which will take three to seven days.? > > Bring on the Dancing Horses > > None of the above alters the fundamental fact that the USUK combo ? plus the proverbial NATO chihuahuas Poland and the Baltics ? are spinning around like mad trying to provoke a war. And the only way to do it is to Release the False Flags. It may be sometime in February, it may be during the Beijing Olympics, it may be before the onset of Spring. But they will come. And the Russians are ready. > > The preamble has been staged straight from Monty Python Flying Circus ? complete with Crash Test Dummy, a.k.a. POTUS yelling to comedian Zelensky that, in a trashy Mongol revival, ?Kiev will be sacked? (to the sound of Bring On the Dancing Horses ?); an outraged Zelensky telling POTUS to, c?mon man, back off; and the White House swearing that the US has gamed 18 scenarios for the ?Russian invasion? (Lavrov: 17 were written by the intel alphabet soup, the 18th by the State Dept.) > > Cue to non-stop, frantic weaponizing of country 404 ? everything from Javelins to MANPADs to overpriced Blackwater/Academi-tinged waves of ?advisers?. > > Switching away from farce, not to mention misguided scenarios starting from the faulty premise of an ?invasion?, the only rational move Moscow may be contemplating is to de facto recognize the People?s Republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, and send in a contingent of peacekeepers. > > That, of course, would enrage the neo-con infested War Inc. matrix to intergalactic paroxysm, as it would nullify all those elaborate psyops geared to instill the Fear of God on the unsuspecting victims of the Remixed Khanate of the Golden Horde, burning and looting all the way to?the Hungarian plains? > > Then there?s the tricky question of how to de-Nazify Western Ukraine: that will be a strictly Ukrainian matter, with zero Russian involvement. > > The ghost of Mackinder is in total freak out mode contemplating in impotence the imperial brilliance of deciding to fight a two-front war against the Russia-China strategic partnership. At least there?s Monty Python to the rescue: the Ministry of Silly Walks has been gloriously revived as the Ministry of Silly Strategies. > > Pride of place goes to the phone call placed by Little Blinkie to Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi ? which contains all the elements of a brilliant comic sketch. It stars with the combo behind that cipher, ?Biden?, thinking that the Beijing leadership could influence Putin to not exercise ?Russian aggression? against 404. On the sidelines, perhaps there could be some discussion about the ?Indo-Pacific? racket. > > The plot went downhill when once again Wang Yi ? remember Alaska? ? made shark fin?s soup out of Blinkie. The key take aways: China totally supports Russia; it?s the US that is destabilizing Europe; and were more sanctions to come, Europe will pay a terrible price, not Russia, which of course can count on a serious helping hand from China. > > Now compare it with the phone call between Putin and Macron. It was, to start with, cordial. They discussed ?brain-dead? (copyright Macron) NATO. They discussed the proverbial Anglo-Saxon shenanigans. They even discussed the possibility of forming a pan-European group ? a sort of anti-AUKUS ? with Russia included, curbing the influence of the Five Eyes and bent on avoiding by all means a war in European soil. For the moment, it?s all talk. But the game-changing seeds are all there. > > Misguided scenarios insist that Putin skillfully exploited the imperial obsession with the rise and rise of China to re-establish Russia?s sphere of influence. Nonsense. The sphere was always there ? and won?t move. The difference is Moscow finally got fed up with the heavy symbolism permeating the unresolved 404 mess: the intermingling of raw Russophobia in Washington and containment/encirclement NATO knocking at the door. > > Metaphorically, this may turn out to be the Year of two ? sanctioned ? Black Water Tigers, one Chinese, one Siberian. They will be harassed non-stop by the headless eagle, blind to its own irreversible decay and always resorting to the serial Hail Mary passes of the only ?policy? it knows. > > The ultimate danger ? especially for the European minions ? is that the headless eagle will never let go of its former ?indispensable? status without provoking another devastating war. In European soil. Still the tigers persist: in Beijing, before the Games commence, they will be taking yet another step to irreversibly bury the ?rules-based international order?. > > > Unsubscribe From This Mailing List -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Feb 4 23:08:54 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2022 17:08:54 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended videos for AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV Message-ID: <7e175440-84c2-db1d-4b5b-15e3eb75a84f@forestfield.org> Here are the videos I recommended to run during AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV. As a reminder: If anyone else has anything to run, please feel free to get your video pointers to UPTV (UPTV at urbanaillinois.us). I have continued to ask UPTV to prioritize AWARE members video pointers over mine for AWARE on the Air, Carl Estabrook & David Green's video pointers over mine for News from Neptune, and David Johnson's video pointers over mine for Labor's World View TV. Enjoy. -J News from Neptune & AWARE on the Air ================================================== The Socialist Program with Brian Becker https://youtube.com/watch?v=5ZPTDfMW-VI (1h 3m 27s) -- The Untold History of NATO and Case for Its Abolition The Left Lens https://youtube.com/watch?v=Ih0H1IHVNO4 (37m 53s) -- Western Left Slander against China DEBUNKED https://youtube.com/watch?v=khzBvWGarU0 (1h 9m) -- Interview w/Danny Haiphong on Popular Voice Network talking American Exceptionalism Grayzone https://youtube.com/watch?v=ksZ0gWrhn0Y (23m 56s) -- Biden's Yemen betrayal: US continues backing Saudi-led war Glenn Greenwald https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Ds5NK5gkKI (34m 34s) -- The Media Outlets Demanding Joe Rogan's Removal from Spotify Spread Far More Disinformation https://youtube.com/watch?v=g_uSPwYiVFs (27m 34s) -- Democrats Are Pressuring Companies to Censor For Them: a Violation of the First Amendment More Perfect Union https://youtube.com/watch?v=zyqDEWF9_2c (10m 4s) -- This Small U.S. Town Has Medicare For All | The Class Room Labor's World View TV ================================================== More Perfect Union https://youtube.com/watch?v=iII_5A05xdk (6m 5s) -- Railroad Workers Barred From Striking https://youtube.com/watch?v=2GNWrFj6Wa0 (3m 53s) -- Amazon Workers Confident They?ll WIN Union Election Rerun in Alabama https://youtube.com/watch?v=zyqDEWF9_2c (10m 4s) -- This Small U.S. Town Has Medicare For All | The Class Room https://youtube.com/watch?v=Fdwnig6j2LE (6m 7s) -- Cheesecake Factory Workers EXPOSE Company's Greed laborvideo https://youtube.com/watch?v=139dvJfFONg (55m 57s) -- Victory To South African Clover Workers & Smash Israeli Union Busting! For Workers Control At Clover From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sun Feb 6 03:16:51 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 5 Feb 2022 21:16:51 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Erdogan in Kiev, Putin in Beijing: Can Neo-Ottomanism Fit Into Greater Eurasia? References: <20220205150059.1.A824BF002C1FA875@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Pepe Escobar / The Unz Review > Subject: Erdogan in Kiev, Putin in Beijing: Can Neo-Ottomanism Fit Into Greater Eurasia? > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > > The Unz Review ? An Alternative Media Selection Subscribe > A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media > Erdogan in Kiev, Putin in Beijing: Can Neo-Ottomanism Fit Into Greater Eurasia? Pepe Escobar ? Friday, February 4, 2022 ? 1,800 Words > The Chinese year of the Black Water Tiger?started with a big bang ? a live Beijing summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping ? and a minor bang ? Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Kiev, Ukraine. And yes, it?s all interlinked. > > Kremlin foreign policy adviser Yuri Ushakov had revealed in advance that Putin-Xi would release a very important ?joint statement on international relations entering a new era,? with Russia and China in synch ?on the most important world problems, including security issues.? > > Foreign Ministers Sergey Lavrov and Wang Yi, who worked non-stop prior to the summit, met the day before in Beijing to finalize the joint statement. Wang stressed the increasing interconnection of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) with the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), and much to the interest of the Global South, referred to extensive discussions on BRICS cooperation, Ukraine, Afghanistan and the Korean Peninsula. > > The Russia-China joint statement (here, in Russian) did not cut any corners. The two global powers, among the summit?s key takeaways, are against NATO expansion; favor the UN and ?justice in international relations;? will fight ?interference in the internal affairs of sovereign countries;? oppose ?external forces? undermining national security; and are resolutely against color revolutions. > > A Putin Op-Ed published by Xinhua detailed the full spectrum of the Sino-Russian discussions at the highest level ? from the drive to ?strengthen the central coordinating role of the United Nations in global affairs and to prevent the international legal system, with the UN Charter at its center, from being eroded,? to ?consistently expanding the practice of settlements in national currencies and creating mechanisms to offset the negative impact of unilateral [US] sanctions.? > > Putin resolutely defined China as ?our strategic partner in the international arena,? and stressed how he and Xi ?hold largely the same views on addressing the world?s problems.? > > He said this strategic partnership is ?sustainable, intrinsically valuable, not affected by the political climate and not aimed against anyone. It is underpinned by respect, regard for each other?s core interests, adherence to international law and the UN Charter.? > > The Global South ? and possibly swathes of Europe, now facing a frigid winter with hiked fuel prices because of the stand off over Ukraine ? will not fail to compare it with NATO?s worldview. > > Meanwhile, in Kiev, Erdogan and Zelensky were reviewing the Turkish-Ukrainian strategic partnership. > > Erdogan did perform quite a feat in Kiev. He called for ?a ?peaceful and diplomatic solution? in Ukraine, not exactly following the relentless War Inc. narrative. He even said the solution should be found ?within the framework of the Minsk agreements, on the basis of Ukraine?s territorial integrity and international law.? > > That happens to exactly tie in with Moscow?s view. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had previously commented, ?if Turkey could encourage Kiev to implement the Minsk deal, Moscow would welcome this development.? > > The Sultan swing again > > So enter Erdogan as benign messenger/peacemaker ? the latest twist in the fascinating, never-ending saga of what could be interpreted as his search for a more refined post-neo-Ottomanism stance in foreign policy. > > Well, it?s not that simple. Erdogan, even before landing in Kiev, affirmed that Ankara is ready to host a live Putin-Zelensky meeting or even ?talks at the technical level.? > > That was his cue to promote a possible Putin jaunt to Ankara after his meeting with Xi in Beijing: ?Mr. Putin told us that he will visit Turkey after his visit to China.? > > Erdogan did invite Putin in late January. The Kremlin confirms no date has been set yet. > > The ostensible purpose of Erdogan?s visit to Kiev, part of a High-Level Strategic Council, was to sign a so-called New Generation Free Trade Agreement, including the very tricky ? for Moscow ? joint production of Bayraktar drones, manufactured by Baykar Makina, a company owned by none other than Erdogan?s son-in-law Selcuk Bayraktar. > > Yes, in Erdoganistan it?s all in the family. And the problem is that the Bayraktar TBT 2 combat drone ? like those sold to Ukraine since 2018 ? will continue to be used against the civilian population of Donetsk. Lavrov and even Putin himself have been very vocal about it vis-a-vis Ankara. > > Erdogan?s geopolitical tightrope walking includes Russian S-400s in and US F-35s out, receiving Russian gas and nuclear technology while selling those Bayraktars to Russia?s enemies, and even the support, expressed by Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar in late January, to the 1936 Montreux Convention , which is very specific on restricting NATO in the Black Sea: ?It is out of the question to give up on [Montreux] under today?s conditions.? > > NATO?s headquarters in Brussels won?t be amused. > > Up to now, Erdogan and his Justice and Development Party (AKP) had been actively ditching Montreux to the benefit of the still far-fetched Canal Istanbul linking the Mediterranean to the Black Sea, ?entirely under Turkey?s sovereignty,? according to Erdogan ? obviously a very juicy deal from NATO?s point of view. Yet the fact is Ankara, mired in an economic/financial swamp, has no means to build the Canal. > > The geopolitical tightrope walking still leaves in the balance the real objectives of the Organization of Turkic States (OTS), formerly Turkic Council, which crystallizes the pull of pan-Turkism ? or pan-Turanism. It has already gone beyond last year?s Susha Declaration, which solidified a Turk-Azeri ?one nation, two states;? it now encompasses these two plus Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan, and has been actively courting Hungary, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan and ? last but not least ? Ukraine. > > The OTS met in a tightly secured island in Istanbul last November. They discussed in detail the fact that the extremely complex political environment in Taliban Afghanistan might spill over new instances of terrorism and uncontrolled migration. There were no leaks about future, practical OTS steps. > > Way more than a bridge connecting Asia Minor and the Caucasus to Central Asia, or a sort of benign form of ?dialogue? between the south Caucasus and Central Asia, the OTS, in theory, carries all the trappings of a bloc from the Black Sea to Xinjiang, under a not-too-disguised Turkish hegemony, which implies a serious Trojan Horse element: a NATO presence. > > It remains to be seen how the OTS would interface with the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), which congregates the ?stans? as full members, as well as Iran ? but not Turkey, which is just an observer. The SCO top powers are of course Russia and China, which in no way would allow, for instance, the Caspian to be open to western predatory policies, infringement of Russian and Iranian spheres of influence, and most of all a ?security? bloc with NATO ?leading from behind.? > > The talk in those palace corridors > > It?s quite enlightening to assess how Erdogan media ? over 90% fully controlled across Turkey ? mirrors? what may be the real calculations swirling in the corridors of that 1000-room Sultanesque palace in Ankara. > > They see that Russia ?invaded Crimea, and annexed eastern Ukraine,? and is trying to ?solidify its position in the Black Sea and Eastern Europe.? At the same time, they see the Empire instrumentalizing Turkey as a mere ?frontline? in a larger war, with NATO?s strategy to ?besiege? Russia and China also being applied against Turkey. > > So ?the fear of Turkey is now as strong as the fear of Russia and China.? > > They seem to understand that if War Inc. gets what it desperately wants, ?the Black Sea will be transformed into the Eastern Mediterranean. The US and Europe fully settling into the Black Sea means they will never leave.? That ?could lead to Turkey?s destruction in the medium and long term.? > > And then there?s the crucial twist: ?Ukraine cannot stop Russia. But Turkey can.? That is exactly what Erdogan is playing at. ?The US and Europe must be thwarted from settling into the Black Sea. Turkey-Russia relations must be preserved.? The problem is how ?Ukraine?s integrity and defense must be supported.? > > All of the above perfectly ties in with Erdogan, back from Kiev with all rhetorical guns blazing, blasting that the West wants to ?worsen? the Ukrainian crisis. Erdogan media frames it as ?a game is being set to drive Turkey against Russia.? > > Erdogan so far never really challenged the ?rules-based international order.? He always made a point of addressing two different messages to East and West. To Asia, the emphasis was on anti-imperialism, the dire consequences of colonialism, the Israeli apartheid state and western Islamophobia. To the West, he impressed his own version of dialogue of civilizations (and was branded as ?an autocrat?). > > Ultimately Erdogan is not west-toxified, much to the contrary. He sees the US-led order as a neocolonial power only interested in pillaging the resources of the lands of Islam. Of course he?s handicapped culturally ? adhering, at best, to memorizing Quranic verses, listening to Ottoman military music and having his photo taken with the odd Turkish pop star. He doesn?t read; it?s all about instinct. > > A conversation about Erdoganian neo-Ottomanism in Istanbul?s Grand Bazaar beats any think tank analysis. Bazaaris tell us it?s something in constant flux. In foreign policy terms, it migrated from pro-EU to frustration for being excluded, coupled with the certainty that Turkey is fed up with being a US client state. It?s as if Erdogan, instinctively, has grasped the collective west?s current, abysmal strategic debacle ? thus his effort, now, to build some strategic cooperation with Russia-China. > > Has he undergone a conversion though? Considering his legendary volatility, all bets are off. Erdogan has a long memory, and has not forgotten that Putin was the first world leader to condemn the ? botched ? 2016 coup attempt by the usual intel suspects, and support him personally. > > It?s still a long way for Erdogan?s Turkey to become a strategic partner to Russia. Yet he has a knack of knowing which way the geopolitical winds are blowing ? and that points to Eurasia integration, the Russian-conceptualized Greater Eurasia Partnership, and the primacy of the Russia-China strategic partnership manifested through BRI, EAEU and the SCO. > > There?s even an Eurasianist mini-boom in Turkey. They are secular; anti-NATO ? just like Russia-China; consider the Empire as the undisputed troublemaker in West Asia; and want closer ties with Moscow and Tehran. > > In Nostalgia for the Empire: The Politics of Neo-Ottomanism, M. Hakan Yavuz argues that ?neo-Ottomanism constitutes a web of interrelationships between the dominant discourse of Islamism, the residual memories of Ottoman grandeur, and the prominent desire to reconstitute the Turkish nation as a regional power with historic roots.? > > The money quote is ?regional power?. Why not a strong ?regional power? deeply integrated into a strong Greater Eurasia ? instead of a mere (decaying) western vassal? No wonder Erdogan is dying to hang out with Putin in Ankara. > > > Unsubscribe From This Mailing List -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Mon Feb 7 16:14:31 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2022 11:14:31 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Jayapal-DeFazio: "We Will Pass Yemen War Powers Res. by March 25" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: This is *exactly* what War Powers Club wanted from the CPC on Yemen WPR at this stage: a public commitment to invoke the War Powers Resolution of 1973 to force and win a Congressional floor vote by March 25 [the 7th anniversary of the unconstitutional war] if Biden has not yet kept his campaign promise - codified in the Democratic Platform, among other places - to end the war. Bravo. Mark me down as impressed. It is not the end. But perhaps it is the beginning of the end. Please spread this all around, however you like to spread things. === "We will not sit by as the Constitution is ignored and the Yemeni people suffer *seven years* into this *unauthorized war*. If the administration refuses to act, *Congress will force *them to. *In advance of the seventh anniversary of this war*, we will work with our colleagues in Congress to *pass a new Yemen War Powers Resolution to end unconstitutional US participation in this war*.? - Why We Intend to Pass a New Yemen War Powers Resolution Ending unconstitutional US involvement in the war. By Rep. Pramila Jayapal and Peter DeFazio *The Nation* TODAY 9:11 AM https://www.thenation.com/article/world/yemen-wars-power-resoultion/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From mkb3 at icloud.com Tue Feb 8 01:14:10 2022 From: mkb3 at icloud.com (Morton K. Brussel) Date: Mon, 7 Feb 2022 19:14:10 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] DemocracyNow! Message-ID: A horrid program today with the anti Russian Masha Gessen, writer for the New Yorker?bad?, and Anatol Lievenof the Quincy Institute, less antagonistic to Russia?s desires for stability o ts borders. Gessen seems to be a favorite Amy Goodman of DemocracyNow, having been respectively listened to before. She?s ready to swallow whatever nonsense Gessen spouts about Russia. In the preset instance, Gessen talks about Russia agression against Ukraine. Another reason to turn away from Goodman and her program. ?mkb From r-szoke at illinois.edu Wed Feb 9 06:10:07 2022 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2022 06:10:07 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Book-banning in Tennessee Message-ID: Anent the recent furor over book-banning in the schools of McMinn County TN A note on a centuries-old institutional practice of forbidding or suppressing books claimed to contain doctrinal or moral errors : the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden Books. It is held that they contain material that may mislead or confuse simple congregants. See Redmond A. Burke, C.S.V., Ph.D. (Director of Libraries, De Paul University; , _What Is the Index?_ (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1952, 129 pages). On back of title page: Nihil obstat, Imprimi potest, Nihil obstat [again], Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch, March 17, 1952. [ Certifies that the book is considered free of doctrinal or moral error by the prelacy & thus eligible to be published. ] > Appendix B: ?Various Forbidden Authors and Titles? (pp. 87-105). A few of the better-known authors of the publications mentioned: A. France, T. Hobbes, D. Hume, B. Croce, H. Grotius, M. Maeterlinck, P. Proudhon, J.-P. Sartre, F.M. Voltaire, E. Zola, J. Addison, H. Heine, B. de Mandeville, M. Montaigne, J.-J. Rousseau, G. Flaubert, V. Hugo, Stendhal, etc. Notes 1. It is mentioned that Catholics can apply to the hierarchy for permission to read specified books if they have an acceptable reason for doing so. 2. McMinn County, in Appalachian eastern Tennessee, is in the original snake-handling area of fundamentalist & evangelical Protestantism. From r-szoke at illinois.edu Wed Feb 9 06:10:07 2022 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2022 06:10:07 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Book-banning in Tennessee Message-ID: Anent the recent furor over book-banning in the schools of McMinn County TN A note on a centuries-old institutional practice of forbidding or suppressing books claimed to contain doctrinal or moral errors : the Roman Catholic Index of Forbidden Books. It is held that they contain material that may mislead or confuse simple congregants. See Redmond A. Burke, C.S.V., Ph.D. (Director of Libraries, De Paul University; , _What Is the Index?_ (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1952, 129 pages). On back of title page: Nihil obstat, Imprimi potest, Nihil obstat [again], Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch, March 17, 1952. [ Certifies that the book is considered free of doctrinal or moral error by the prelacy & thus eligible to be published. ] > Appendix B: ?Various Forbidden Authors and Titles? (pp. 87-105). A few of the better-known authors of the publications mentioned: A. France, T. Hobbes, D. Hume, B. Croce, H. Grotius, M. Maeterlinck, P. Proudhon, J.-P. Sartre, F.M. Voltaire, E. Zola, J. Addison, H. Heine, B. de Mandeville, M. Montaigne, J.-J. Rousseau, G. Flaubert, V. Hugo, Stendhal, etc. Notes 1. It is mentioned that Catholics can apply to the hierarchy for permission to read specified books if they have an acceptable reason for doing so. 2. McMinn County, in Appalachian eastern Tennessee, is in the original snake-handling area of fundamentalist & evangelical Protestantism. From bill.strutz at gmail.com Wed Feb 9 06:45:39 2022 From: bill.strutz at gmail.com (Bill Strutz) Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2022 00:45:39 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Book-banning in Tennessee In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Very interesting! Now, how about lunch? Regards, Bill On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 12:10 AM Szoke, Ron wrote: > > Anent the recent furor over book-banning in the schools of McMinn County > TN > > A note on a centuries-old institutional practice of forbidding or > suppressing books claimed to contain doctrinal or moral errors : the Roman > Catholic Index of Forbidden Books. It is held that they contain material > that may mislead or confuse simple congregants. > > See Redmond A. Burke, C.S.V., Ph.D. (Director of Libraries, De Paul > University; , _What Is the Index?_ (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1952, > 129 pages). > > On back of title page: Nihil obstat, Imprimi potest, Nihil obstat > [again], Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch, March 17, 1952. [ Certifies > that the book is considered free of doctrinal or moral error by the prelacy > & thus eligible to be published. ] > > > Appendix B: ?Various Forbidden Authors and Titles? (pp. 87-105). > > A few of the better-known authors of the publications mentioned: > A. France, T. Hobbes, D. Hume, B. Croce, H. Grotius, M. Maeterlinck, P. > Proudhon, J.-P. Sartre, F.M. Voltaire, E. Zola, J. Addison, H. Heine, B. de > Mandeville, M. Montaigne, J.-J. Rousseau, G. Flaubert, V. Hugo, Stendhal, > etc. > > Notes > 1. It is mentioned that Catholics can apply to the hierarchy for > permission to read specified books if they have an acceptable reason for > doing so. > > 2. McMinn County, in Appalachian eastern Tennessee, is in the original > snake-handling area of fundamentalist & evangelical Protestantism. > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *My name is a complete sentence* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From bill.strutz at gmail.com Wed Feb 9 06:45:39 2022 From: bill.strutz at gmail.com (Bill Strutz) Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2022 00:45:39 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Book-banning in Tennessee In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Very interesting! Now, how about lunch? Regards, Bill On Wed, Feb 9, 2022 at 12:10 AM Szoke, Ron wrote: > > Anent the recent furor over book-banning in the schools of McMinn County > TN > > A note on a centuries-old institutional practice of forbidding or > suppressing books claimed to contain doctrinal or moral errors : the Roman > Catholic Index of Forbidden Books. It is held that they contain material > that may mislead or confuse simple congregants. > > See Redmond A. Burke, C.S.V., Ph.D. (Director of Libraries, De Paul > University; , _What Is the Index?_ (Milwaukee: Bruce Publishing Co., 1952, > 129 pages). > > On back of title page: Nihil obstat, Imprimi potest, Nihil obstat > [again], Imprimatur Samuel Cardinal Stritch, March 17, 1952. [ Certifies > that the book is considered free of doctrinal or moral error by the prelacy > & thus eligible to be published. ] > > > Appendix B: ?Various Forbidden Authors and Titles? (pp. 87-105). > > A few of the better-known authors of the publications mentioned: > A. France, T. Hobbes, D. Hume, B. Croce, H. Grotius, M. Maeterlinck, P. > Proudhon, J.-P. Sartre, F.M. Voltaire, E. Zola, J. Addison, H. Heine, B. de > Mandeville, M. Montaigne, J.-J. Rousseau, G. Flaubert, V. Hugo, Stendhal, > etc. > > Notes > 1. It is mentioned that Catholics can apply to the hierarchy for > permission to read specified books if they have an acceptable reason for > doing so. > > 2. McMinn County, in Appalachian eastern Tennessee, is in the original > snake-handling area of fundamentalist & evangelical Protestantism. > -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- *My name is a complete sentence* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Feb 10 19:19:39 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2022 13:19:39 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_Justin_Trudeau=27s_Ceau=C5=9Fes?= =?utf-8?q?cu_Moment?= References: <20220210180450.2.cfc2c38c9617970b.di566hvf@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Matt Taibbi > Subject: Justin Trudeau's Ceau?escu Moment > Date: February 10, 2022 at 12:04:50 PM CST > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > Reply-To: Matt Taibbi > > > > Justin Trudeau's Ceau?escu Moment > Denouncing truckers for "unacceptable views," Canada's Prime Minister skipped town rather than face evidence of his own unpopularity. Is neoliberalism finally cracking? > Matt Taibbi > Feb 10 > > On the morning of the 21st of December, 1989, Romanian General Secretary Nicolae Ceau?escu was in a foul mood. The Berlin Wall had fallen, and Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush had recently announced the end of the Cold War, making the end of Ceau?escu?s rule inevitable, though he couldn?t see this yet. Worse, his security leaders had just failed to violently put down protests in the city of Timisoara, a fact that enraged his wife Elena. > > ?You should have fired on them, and had they fallen, you should have taken them and shoved them into a cellar,? she said. ?Weren?t you told that?? > > Long one of the world?s most vicious dictators, Ceau?escu?s most recent plan for winning over the heartland was forcing half the country?s villagers to destroy their own homes ? with pick-axes and hammers, if they couldn?t afford a bulldozer ? and packing them into project apartments in new ?agro-industrial towns,? for a ?better future.? Despite this, and his long history of murder, terror, and spying, Ceau?escu to the end did not grasp that his unpopularity had an organic character. He was convinced ethnically Hungarian ?terrorists? were behind the latest trouble. > > After reaching the balcony of Bucharest?s Central Committee building to give a speech that December day, he?s genuinely surprised when the crowd turns on him. When he tells them to be quiet, he?s befuddled by their refusal, saying, ?What, you can?t hear?? Elena jumps in and yells, ?Silence!?, to which Ceau?escu, hilariously, replies, ?Shut up!? The crowd listens to neither of them. > > Paul Kenyon?s Children of the Night describes the morbid black comedy that ensued. The Ceau?escus and a motley gang of undead apparatchiks that included the ?morbidly obese Prime Minister, Emil Bobu? later tried to load into a single helicopter ? Bobu ?waddled, walrus-like, to the rear? Kenyon writes ? but there were too many of them, and the copter barely got off the ground. ?Where to?? asked the pilot, and nobody knew, because there was no plan, since none of them had ever considered the possibility of this happening. > > The sky was full of stuff, including other helicopters, which were dropping leaflets on the crowd giving what Kenyon described as a Marie Antoinette-like order to ignore ?imperialist conspiracies? and return home ?to a Christmas feast.? Four days later, a firing squad put the Ceau?escus against a wall and gave them their final, solid lead Christmas presents . > > Ceau?escu?s balcony will forever be a symbol of elite cluelessness. Even in the face of the gravest danger, a certain kind of ruler will never be able to see the last salvo coming, if doing so requires any self-examination. The neoliberal political establishment in most of the Western world, the subject of repeat populist revolts of rising intensity in recent years, seems to suffer from the same disability. > > There may be no real-world comparison between a blood-soaked monster like Ceau?escu and a bumbling ball-scratcher like Joe Biden, or an honorarium-gobbling technocrat like Hillary Clinton, or a Handsome Dan investment banker like Emmanuel Macron, or an effete pseudo-intellectual like Justin Trudeau. Still, the ongoing inability of these leaders to see the math of populist uprisings absolutely recalls that infamous scene in Bucharest. From Brexit to the election of Donald Trump to, now, the descent of thousands of Canadian truckers upon the capital city of Ottawa to confront Trudeau, a consistent theme has been the refusal to admit ? not even to us, but to themselves ? the numerical truth of what they?re dealing with. > > Trudeau is becoming the ultimate example. Truckers last month began protesting a January 22nd rule that required the production of vaccine passports before crossing the U.S.-Canadian border. Canadian truckers are reportedly 90% vaccinated , above the country?s 78% total, a key detail that?s been brazenly ignored by media in both countries determined to depict these more as ?anti-vax ? than ?anti-mandate? protests (which seem to be about many things at once, but that?s another story). When an angry convoy descended upon the capital, Trudeau dismissed them in a soliloquy that can only be described as inspired political arson: > > The small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa, who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing, do not represent the views of Canadians?who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to ensure our rights, our freedoms, our values as a country. > > A near-exact repeat of the ?basket of deplorables? episode, Trudeau?s imperious description of ?unacceptable? views instantly became a rallying cry, with people across the country lining the streets to cheer truckers while self-identifying as the ?small fringe minority.? Everyone from high school kids to farmers and teachers and random marchers carrying jerrycans of fuel joined in as Trudeau?s own words were used to massively accelerate his troubles. > > > James Melville ? > @JamesMelville > First it was the truckers. > Then along came the farmers. > And then along came the cowboys. > > And they are now blocking the US - Canada border. > > #FreedomConvoy > #Freedomblockade > #TruckersForFreedom2022 > > > February 6th 2022 > > 6,414 Retweets20,378 Likes > > Trudeau fled the city, removing his family to what aides called a ?secret location ? for ?security reasons,? a politically disastrous move denounced by just about everyone with a microphone or a Twitter account, including members of his own party . Liberal MP Jo?l Lightbound took things a step further. He ripped Trudeau?s politics as divisive, saying his government needs to recognize people have ?legitimate concerns? while adding , acidly, ?Not everyone can earn a living on a MacBook at a cottage.? This has been a theme in the States, too, where the people most dickishly insistent on the necessity of lockdowns or mandates have tended to be Zoomer professionals spending the pandemic in pajamas. > > Meanwhile, in a hilarious third-rate spoof version of American conventional wisdom ? when Canadians try to imitate American pretensions, does it ever not end in a cringe-worthy self-own? ? CBC announcer Nil K?ksal went on air on January 28th and suggested the trucker protests were a Russian concoction. ?Given Canada?s support of Ukraine in this current crisis with Russia,? she posited, to Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino, ?there is concern that Russian actors could be continuing to fuel things as this protest grows, or perhaps even instigating it from the outside.?... > Continue reading this post and get 7 days free. > Become a subscriber of TK News by Matt Taibbi to keep reading this post. Get 7 days free and access to all the archives. > > Start Trial > A subscription gets you: > > Subscriber-only posts and full archive > Subscriber-only episodes in your podcast app > Post comments and join the community > ? 2022 Matt Taibbi Unsubscribe > 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Thu Feb 10 22:54:38 2022 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2022 16:54:38 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Party Season In-Reply-To: <20220210184202.2.7724b26a0ba244c7.6w9wp54k@mg2.substack.com> References: <20220210184202.2.7724b26a0ba244c7.6w9wp54k@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Red Star Radio from Red Star Radio Date: Thu, Feb 10, 2022, 12:42 PM Subject: Party Season To: The End of the Covid Regime In Britain Reveals Much About Our Political System ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Party Season The End of the Covid Regime In Britain Reveals Much About Our Political System Red Star Radio Feb 10 [image: Comment] [image: Share] The removal of most of the remaining Covid 19 control measures by the Westminster government has brought almost two years of lockdowns and other restrictions to what now feels like a final halt. It ends amidst a farcical scandal and splits within the ruling Conservative Party that only serves to underline how much Covid policy was driven by political, and not health, concerns from the very beginning even if this was always denied. The entire episode proves that ?the science? was actually the last thing to be considered. The ending of all restrictions across Britain follows a series of political struggles within the cabinet and parliament towards the end of last year. Boris Johnson was under pressure from much of the establishment media to enact another ?circuit breaker? lockdown to deal with the new Omicron variant that had first been reported by South African doctors. The fact that the head of the South African medical association had repeatedly stressed that this was a more contagious but much milder variant was never explained by the major media outlets and the government modellers duly got to work constructing worse case scenarios which were then reported with large headlines and zero context in the press . The same closed media-political class circle that had generated the atmosphere of panic that produced the first lockdown and then the second one during the 2020 Christmas snapped back into aciton. It was at this time (November 2021) that moves began to be made against Johnson himself with leaks going out to the press regarding his staff attending a series of parties in violation of the government's own policies during the first lockdown in May of 2020. In response, Johnson appeared to try and enact the traditional ?dead cat? tactic and put a host of measures before parliament in such a manner as to arouse even his own cabinet to suspicion of his motives. The cabinet was too split to agree to further lockdown measures, with many ministers against them and the finance minister (and potential leadership rival) Rishi Sunak being prominent amongst them. The vote in parliament over some toned down restrictions (including vaccine passes) and a vaccine mandate for health workers caused a record rebellion amongst the Conservative Parliamentary Party with over 100 MP?s breaking the party whip and Johnson only getting the measures through with the near unanimous support of the Labour Party. Johnson was now in serious political trouble with both the libertarian and more statist wings of his party rapidly turning on him (the latter over the party revelations); he needed to try and restore backbench support. He has attempted to do so by essentially declaring Covid to be over and the messaging has changed rapidly ever since the narrow vote in favour of the ?plan B? restrictions by parliament. Not only has Johnson declared an end to all of the measures but the vaccine mandate for NHS workers appears to have been dropped . It should be noted that the Scottish and Welsh regional assemblies are moving slower and attempting to keep in place more restrictions such as masking in all public places and their versions of vaccine passes. These are rendered somewhat impotent however when you take into account the small size of Britain and that there are no borders between the three constituent regions of it. The rapid collapse of the covid regulatory regime proves demonstrates two realities about British politics. Firstly, despite years of erosion of their functionality as instruments and venues for democratic debate and oversight over the executive branch, both cabinet and parliamentary sovereignty are still able to exert limits on executive power. Secondly (and more importantly) is that the covid regulatory regime was put in place due to a series of political problems but that these, whilst generated ultimately by the contradictions of British capitalism, did not involve the ruling class having a material stake in either the construction or demolition of this regulatory regime. The implementation of the Covid 19 regime was due to a political-media caste melt down in early 2020. The main drivers of this were the fear within the cabinet that the National Health Service would collapse under the pressure they thought would be exerted on it. The Prime Minister's chief adviser at the time, Dominic Cummings, stated in testimony before a parliamentary committee that they were influenced heavily by the scenes being shown from Italy at the time. Italy of course had also significantly cut it?s health care capacity under the impact of austerity budgets over the last decade. As figures from the OSCE clearly show , Britain has seen a dramatic fall in capacity since the early 2000?s under successive administrations of both major parties. The Tory fear of being exposed over NHS issues runs very deep and hence when Johnson was then presented with this scenario he panicked and reached for a ?solution? which Neil Ferguson presented him with. Neil Ferguson has created a model demonstrating that the only effective way to reduce the impact on hospitalizations as due to Covid was through behavioural changes forced on the population with lockdowns. It was assumed by many on the left that the lockdowns would inhibit capital accumulation. Although economic activity and growth rates slowed down, profits of the major companies were not significantly damaged and massive government largesse actually increased the wealth of the capitalist class in Britain over the course of 2020-2021 . Crucial areas of commodity production in Britain such as the car industry were flooded with government money and when it came to construction projects there was only a small pause in projects which was (again) cushioned by state funds being funnelled to the affected firms. Since the first lockdown was the most restrictive, the most crucial areas of production (such as the car industry) went back to fairly normal activity towards the end of 2020 and this trend continued into 2022. Boris Johnson was reportedly keen on winding down the restrictions further in 2020 after the initial lockdown but was faced with the same problem. He was still afraid of the models showing the NHS being overwhelmed and still easily cowed by the incessant demand for more restrictions that were being made by sections of the media and civil society organisations. The political contestation that has developed against the Covid measures took a long time to work itself into a coherent challenge. The first protests occurred in the summer of 2020 and immediately did find an echo in parliament within the ranks of the libertarian end of the Conservative Party. There was a growth of dissent within the population as the government's line shifted all over the place into 2021, particularly from some of the more organised sections of the small business layer of the petite bourgeoisie, particularly those involved in hospitality. The level of politicisation in British society amongst all the subaltern classes had increased in the period immediately before the Covid period thanks to the Brexit vote and subsequent contestation as well as the Corbyn leadership and it?s ultimate defeat. This led to a wider layer of the petite bourgeoisie being politicised and organized. This politicisation and organisation carried over in the covid period, meaning that there existed an organised opposition from very early on. That this was able to successfully mobilise did exert growing pressure on Conservative MP?s or at least gave them the confidence to start speaking out against the decisions of Johnson, though in the manner of ?Loyal Opposition?, frequently blaming SAGE or the chief medical officers Whitty and Vallance rather than Johnson directly. That this opposition was able to manifest itself within the traditional party of British capitalism reflected not only the growing opposition to the covid regime but also the fact that the capitalist class?s position on it was not one that was particularly fixed. They happily took the government bailouts and used these to further inflate their asset prices but they were split over whether the measures were either necessary or good for their class. This was reflected in the bourgeois press that saw some of the most aggressively pro-capitalist newspapers (Telegraph, Mail, Express) carry a balance between pro and anti lockdown reporting throughout with the Times and the Guardian being relentlessly pro-lockdown and pro-vaccine mandates both of these newspapers are traditionally read amongst policy makers, academics and senior government officials. It is worth comparing this to the unanimity that existed with the printed press when it came to Corbyn, all were agreed that he had to be destroyed. This draws out a key point here. However compromised and inadequate the politics of Corbyn were he was still a point of unification for the ruling class in that they all agreed that disposing of him was a priority. No such unanimity ever existed over Covid and hence an increasingly large degree of contestation played out within the public sphere. If the ruling class were unified on the Covid measures being a matter of great importance to their interests then the degree in which contestation could have occurred would have been far smaller and certainly it would not have found such a degree of dissent within the Conservatve Party itself. The collapse of the Covid regime in Britain is instructive because it shows how bourgeois democracy has evolved and how much space is left for contestation. On the fundamental issues regarding the interests of the ruling class no contest can be allowed, as the treatment of Corbyn showed. Where they are ambivalent or there is no clear stake for them a degree of contestation and dissent is still possible. Of course this remains inadequate for anyone who wishes to make fundamental challenges to areas that are jealously guarded by the bourgeoisie but it should make us be very careful when analysing the situation regarding the Covid regime. Like [image: Comment]Comment [image: Share]Share If you liked this post from Red Star Radio , why not share it? Share ? 2022 Red Star Radio Unsubscribe 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 [image: Publish on Substack] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Feb 11 02:55:31 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2022 20:55:31 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_America=E2=80=99s_Real_Adversar?= =?utf-8?q?ies_Are_Its_European_and_Other_Allies?= References: <20220208150127.1.2C21DE31BE8F6A17@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: <1E4ABF3E-C26D-4030-A9AA-780F1CCD5636@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Michael Hudson / The Unz Review > Subject: America?s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > > The Unz Review ? An Alternative Media Selection Subscribe > A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media > America?s Real Adversaries Are Its European and Other Allies The U.S. aim is to keep them from trading with China and Russia > Michael Hudson ? Monday, February 7, 2022 ? 4,500 Words > The Iron Curtain of the 1940s and ?50s was ostensibly designed to isolate Russia from Western Europe ? to keep out Communist ideology and military penetration. Today?s sanctions regime is aimed inward, to prevent America?s NATO and other Western allies from opening up more trade and investment with Russia and China. The aim is not so much to isolate Russia and China as to hold these allies firmly within America?s own economic orbit. Allies are to forego the benefits of importing Russian gas and Chinese products, buying much higher-priced U.S. LNG and other exports, capped by more U.S. arms. > > The sanctions that U.S. diplomats are insisting that their allies impose against trade with Russia and China are aimed ostensibly at deterring a military buildup. But such a buildup cannot really be the main Russian and Chinese concern. They have much more to gain by offering mutual economic benefits to the West. So the underlying question is whether Europe will find its advantage in replacing U.S. exports with Russian and Chinese supplies and the associated mutual economic linkages. > > What worries American diplomats is that Germany, other NATO nations and countries along the Belt and Road route understand the gains that can be made by opening up peaceful trade and investment. If there is no Russian or Chinese plan to invade or bomb them, what is the need for NATO? What is the need for such heavy purchases of U.S. military hardware by America?s affluent allies? And if there is no inherently adversarial relationship, why do foreign countries need to sacrifice their own trade and financial interests by relying exclusively on U.S. exporters and investors? > > These are the concerns that have prompted French President Macron to call forth the ghost of Charles de Gaulle and urge Europe to turn away from what he calls NATO?s ?brain-dead? Cold War and break with the pro-U.S. trade arrangements that are imposing rising costs on Europe while denying it potential gains from trade with Eurasia. Even Germany is balking at demands that it freeze by this coming March by going without Russian gas. > > Instead of a real military threat from Russia and China, the problem for American strategists is the absence of such a threat. All countries have come to realize that the world has reached a point at which no industrial economy has the manpower and political ability to mobilize a standing army of the size that would be needed to invade or even wage a major battle with a significant adversary. That political cost makes it uneconomic for Russia to retaliate against NATO adventurism prodding at its western border trying to incite a military response. It?s just not worth taking over Ukraine. > > America?s rising pressure on its allies threatens to drive them out of the U.S. orbit. For over 75 years they had little practical alternative to U.S. hegemony. But that is now changing. America no longer has the monetary power and seemingly chronic trade and balance-of-payments surplus that enabled it to draw up the world?s trade and investment rules in 1944-45. The threat to U.S. dominance is that China, Russia and Mackinder?s Eurasian World Island heartland are offering better trade and investment opportunities than are available from the United States with its increasingly desperate demand for sacrifices from its NATO and other allies. > > The most glaring example is the U.S. drive to block Germany from authorizing the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to obtain Russian gas for the coming cold weather. Angela Merkel agreed with Donald Trump to spend \$1 billion building a new LNG port to become more dependent on highly priced U.S. LNG. (The plan was cancelled after the U.S. and German elections changed both leaders.) But Germany has no other way of heating many of its houses and office buildings (or supplying its fertilizer companies) than with Russian gas. > > The only way left for U.S. diplomats to block European purchases is to goad Russia into a military response and then claim that avenging this response outweighs any purely national economic interest. As hawkish Under-Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Victoria Nuland, explained in a State Department press briefing on January 27: ?If Russia invades Ukraine one way or another Nord Stream 2 will not move forward.?[1] The problem is to create a suitably offensive incident and depict Russia as the aggressor. > > Nuland expressed who was dictating the policies of NATO members succinctly in 2014: ?Fuck the EU.? That was said as she told the U.S. ambassador to Ukraine that the State Department was backing the puppet Arseniy Yatsenyuk as Ukrainian prime minister (removed after two years in a corruption scandal), and U.S. political agencies backed the bloody Maidan massacre that ushered in what are now eight years of civil war. The result devastated Ukraine much as U.S. violence had done in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. This is not a policy of world peace or democracy that European voters endorse. > > U.S. trade sanctions imposed on its NATO allies extend across the trade spectrum. Austerity-ridden Lithuania gave up its cheese and agricultural market in Russia, and is blocking its state-owned railroad from carrying Belarus potash to the Baltic port of Klaipeda. The port?s majority owner complained that ?Lithuania will lose hundreds of millions of dollars from halting Belarus exports through Klaipeda,? and ?could face legal claims of \$15 billion over broken contracts.?[2] Lithuania has even agreed to U.S. prompting to recognize Taiwan, resulting in China refusing to import German or other products that include Lithuanian-made components. > > Europe is to impose sanctions at the cost of rising energy and agricultural prices by giving priority to imports from the United States and foregoing Russian, Belarusian and other linkages outside of the Dollar Area. As Sergey Lavrov put matters: ?When the United States thinks that something suits its interests, it can betray those with whom it was friendly, with whom it cooperated and who catered to its positions around the world.?[3] > > America?s sanctions on its allies hurt their economies, not those of Russia and China > > What seems ironic is that such sanctions against Russia and China have ended up helping rather than hurting them. But the primary aim was not to hurt nor to help the Russian and Chinese economies. After all, it is axiomatic that sanctions force the targeted countries to become more self-reliant. Deprived of Lithuanian cheese, Russian producers have produced their own, and no longer need to import it from the Baltic states. America?s underlying economic rivalry is aimed at keeping European and its allied Asian countries in its own increasingly protected economic orbit. Germany, Lithuania and other allies are told to impose sanctions directed against their own economic welfare by not trading with countries outside the U.S. dollar-area orbit. > > Quite apart from the threat of actual war resulting from U.S. bellicosity, the cost to America?s allies of surrendering to U.S. trade and investment demands is becoming so high as to be politically unaffordable. For nearly a century there has been little alternative but to agree to trade and investment rules favoring the U.S. economy as the price of receiving U.S. financial and trade support and even military security. But an alternative is now threatening to emerge ? one offering benefits from China?s Belt and Road initiative, and from Russia?s desire for foreign investment to help modernize its industrial organization, as seemed to be promised thirty years ago in 1991. > > Ever since the closing years of World War II, U.S. diplomacy has aimed at locking Britain, France, and especially defeated Germany and Japan, into becoming U.S. economic and military dependencies. As I documented in Super Imperialism, American diplomats broke up the British Empire and absorbed its Sterling Area by the onerous terms imposed first by Lend-Lease and then the Anglo-American Loan Agreement of 1946. The latter?s terms obliged Britain to give up its Imperial Preference policy and unblock the sterling balances that India and other colonies had accumulated for their raw-materials exports during the war, thus opening the British Commonwealth to U.S. exports. > > Britain committed itself not to recover its prewar markets by devaluing sterling. U.S. diplomats then created the IMF and World Bank on terms that promoted U.S. export markets and deterred competition from Britain and other former rivals. Debates in the House of Lords and the House of Commons showed that British politicians recognized that they were being consigned to a subservient economic position, but felt that they had no alternative. And once they gave up, U.S. diplomats had a free hand in confronting the rest of Europe. > > Financial power has enabled America to continue dominating Western diplomacy despite being forced off gold in 1971 as a result of the balance-of-payments costs of its overseas military spending. For the past half-century, foreign countries have kept their international monetary reserves in U.S. dollars ? mainly in U.S. Treasury securities, U.S. bank accounts and other financial investments in the U.S. economy. The Treasury-bill standard obliges foreign central banks to finance America?s military-based balance-of-payments deficit ? and in the process, the domestic government budget deficit. > > The United States does not need this recycling to create money. The government can simply print money, as MMT has demonstrated. But the United States does need this foreign central bank dollar recycling to balance its international payments and support the dollar?s exchange rate. If the dollar were to decline, foreign countries would find it much easier to pay international dollar-debts in their own currencies. U.S. import prices would rise, and it would be more costly for U.S. investors to buy foreign assets. And foreigners would lose money on U.S. stocks and bonds as denominated in their own currencies, and would drop them. Central banks in particular would take a loss on the Treasury?s dollar bonds that they hold in their monetary reserves ? and would find their interest to lie in moving out of the dollar. So the U.S. balance of payments and exchange rate are both threatened by U.S. belligerency and military spending throughout the world ? yet its diplomats are trying to stabilize matters by ramping up the military threat to crisis levels. > > U.S. drives to keep its European and East Asian protectorates locked into its own sphere of influence is threatened by the emergence of China and Russia independently of the United States while the U.S. economy is de-industrializing as a result of its own deliberate policy choices. The industrial dynamic that made the United States so dominant from the late 19th century up to the 1970s has given way to an evangelistic neoliberal financialization. That is why U.S. diplomats need to arm-twist their allies to block their economic relations with post-Soviet Russia and socialist China, whose growth is outstripping that of the United States and whose trade arrangements offer more opportunities for mutual gain. > > At issue is how long the United States can block its allies from taking advantage of China?s economic growth. Will Germany, France and other NATO countries seek prosperity for themselves instead of letting the U.S. dollar standard and trade preferences siphon off their economic surplus? > > Oil diplomacy and America?s dream for post-Soviet Russia > > The expectation of Gorbachev and other Russian officials in 1991 was that their economy would turn to the West for reorganization along the lines that had made the U.S., German and other economies so prosperous. The mutual expectation in Russia and Western Europe was for German, French and other investors to restructure the post-Soviet economy along more efficient lines. > > That was not the U.S. plan. When Senator John McCain called Russia ?a gas station with atom bombs,? that was America?s dream for what they wanted Russia to be ? with Russia?s gas companies passing into control by U.S. stockholders, starting with the planned buyout of Yukos as arranged with Mikhail Khordokovsky. The last thing that U.S. strategists wanted to see was a thriving revived Russia. U.S. advisors sought to privatize Russia?s natural resources and other non-industrial assets, by turning them over to kleptocrats who could ?cash out? on the value of what they had privatized only by selling to U.S. and other foreign investors for hard currency. The result was a neoliberal economic and demographic collapse throughout the post-Soviet states. > > In some ways, America has been turning itself into its own version of a gas station with atom bombs (and arms exports). U.S. oil diplomacy aims to control the world?s oil trade so that its enormous profits will accrue to the major U.S. oil companies. It was to keep Iranian oil in the hands of British Petroleum that the CIA?s Kermit Roosevelt worked with British Petroleum?s Anglo-Persian Oil Company to overthrow Iran?s elected leader Mohammed Mossadegh in 1954 when he sought to nationalize the company after it refused decade after decade to perform its promised contributions to the economy. After installing the Shah whose democracy was based on a vicious police state, Iran threatened once again to act as the master of its own oil resources. So it was once again confronted with U.S.-sponsored sanctions, which remain in effect today. The aim of such sanctions is to keep the world oil trade firmly under U.S. control, because oil is energy and energy is the key to productivity and real GDP. > > In cases where foreign governments such as Saudi Arabia and neighboring Arab petrostates have taken control, the export earnings of their oil are to be deposited in U.S. financial markets to support the dollar?s exchange rate and U.S. financial domination. When they quadrupled their oil prices in 1973-74 (in response to the U.S. quadrupling of its grain-export prices), the U.S. State Department laid down the law and told Saudi Arabia that it could charge as much as it wanted for its oil (thereby raising the price umbrella for U.S. oil producers), but it had to recycle its oil-export earnings to the United States in dollar-denominated securities ? mainly in U.S. Treasury securities and U.S. bank accounts, along with some minority holdings of U.S. stocks and bonds (but only as passive investors, not using this financial power to control corporate policy). > > The second mode of recycling oil-export earnings was to buy U.S. arms exports, with Saudi Arabia becoming one of the military-industrial complex?s largest customers. U.S. arms production actually is not primarily military in character. As the world is now seeing in the kerfuffle over Ukraine, America does not have a fighting army. What it has is what used to be called an ?eating army.? U.S. arms production employs labor and produces weaponry as a kind of prestige good for governments to show off, not for actual fighting. Like most luxury goods, the markup is very high. That is the essence of high fashion and style, after all. The MIC uses its profits to subsidize U.S. civilian production in a way that does not violate the letter of international trade laws against government subsidy. > > Sometimes, of course, military force is indeed used. In Iraq, first George W. Bush and then Barack Obama used the military to seize the country? oil reserves, along with those of Syria and Libya. Control of world oil has been the buttress of America?s balance of payments. Despite the global drive to slow the planet?s warming, U.S. officials continue to view oil as the key to America?s economic supremacy. That is why the U.S. military is still refusing to obey Iraq?s orders to leave their country, keeping its troops in control of Iraqi oil, and why it agreed with the French to destroy Libya and still has troops in the oilfields of Syria. Closer to home, President Biden has approved offshore drilling and supports Canada?s expansion of its Athabasca tar sands, environmentally the dirtiest oil in the world. > > Along with oil and food exports, arms exports support the Treasury-bill standard?s financing of America?s overseas military spending on its 750 bases abroad. But without a standing enemy constantly threatening at the gates, NATO?s existence falls apart. What would be the need for countries to buy submarines, aircraft carriers, airplanes, tanks, missiles and other arms? > > As the United States has de-industrialized, its trade and balance-of-payments deficit is becoming more problematic. It needs arms export sales to help reduce its widening trade deficit and also to subsidize its commercial aircraft and related civilian sectors. The challenge is how to maintain its prosperity and world dominance as it de-industrializes while economic growth is surging ahead in China and now even Russia. > > America has lost its industrial cost advantage by the sharp rise in its cost of living and doing business in its financialized post-industrial rentier economy. Additionally, as Seymour Melman explained in the 1970s, Pentagon capitalism is based on cost-plus contracts: The higher military hardware costs, the more profit its manufacturers receive. So U.S. arms are over-engineered ? hence, the \$500 toilet seats instead of a \$50 model. The main attractiveness of luxury goods after all, including military hardware, is their high price. > > This is the background for U.S. fury at its failure to seize Russia?s oil resources ? and at seeing Russia also break free militarily to create its own arms exports, which now are typically better and much less costly than those of the U.S. Today Russia is in the position of Iran in 1954 and again in 1979. Not only do its oil sales rival those of U.S. LNG, but Russia keeps its oil-export earnings at home to finance its re-industrialization, so as to rebuild the economy that was destroyed by the U.S.-sponsored shock ?therapy? of the 1990s. > > The line of least resistance for U.S. strategy seeking to maintain control of the world?s oil supply while maintaining its luxury-arms export market via NATO is to Cry Wolf and insist that Russia is on the verge of invading Ukraine ? as if Russia had anything to gain by quagmire warfare over Europe?s poorest and least productive economy. The winter of 2021-22 has seen a long attempt at U.S. prodding of NATO and Russia to fight ? without success. > > U.S. dreams of a neoliberalized China as a U.S. corporate affiliate > > America has de-industrialized as a deliberate policy of slashing production costs as its manufacturing companies have sought low-wage labor abroad, most notably in China. This shift was not a rivalry with China, but was viewed as mutual gain. American banks and investors were expected to secure control and the profits of Chinese industry as it was marketized. The rivalry was between U.S. employers and U.S. labor, and the class-war weapon was offshoring and, in the process, cutting back government social spending. > > Similar to the Russian pursuit of oil, arms and agricultural trade independent of U.S. control, China?s offense is keeping the profits of its industrialization at home, retaining state ownership of significant corporations and, most of all, keeping money creation and the Bank of China as a public utility to fund its own capital formation instead of letting U.S. banks and brokerage houses provide its financing and siphon off its surplus in the form of interest, dividends and management fees. The one saving grace to U.S. corporate planners has been China?s role in deterring U.S. wages from rising by providing a source of low-priced labor to enable American manufacturers to offshore and outsource their production. > > The Democratic Party?s class war against unionized labor started in the Carter Administration and greatly accelerated when Bill Clinton opened the southern border with NAFTA. A string of maquiladoras were established along the border to supply low-priced handicraft labor. This became so successful a corporate profit center that Clinton pressed to admit China into the World Trade Organization in December 2001, in the closing month of his administration. The dream was for it to become a profit center for U.S. investors, producing for U.S. companies and financing its capital investment (and housing and government spending too, it was hoped) by borrowing U.S. dollars and organizing its industry in a stock market that, like that of Russia in 1994-96, would become a leading provider of finance-capital gains for U.S. and other foreign investors. > > Walmart, Apple and many other U.S. companies organized production facilities in China, which necessarily involved technology transfers and creation of an efficient infrastructure for export trade. Goldman Sachs led the financial incursion, and helped China?s stock market soar. All this was what America had been urging. > > Where did America?s neoliberal Cold War dream go wrong? For starters, China did not follow the World Bank?s policy of steering governments to borrow in dollars to hire U.S. engineering firms to provide export infrastructure. It industrialized in much the same way that the United States and Germany did in the late 19th century: By heavy public investment in infrastructure to provide basic needs at subsidized prices or freely, from health care and education to transportation and communications, in order to minimize the cost of living that employers and exporters had to pay. Most important, China avoided foreign debt service by creating its own money and keeping the most important production facilities in its own hands. > > U.S. demands are driving its allies out of the dollar-NATO trade and monetary orbit > > As in a classical Greek tragedy, U.S. foreign policy is bringing about precisely the outcome that it most fears. Overplaying their hand with their own NATO allies, U.S. diplomats are bringing about Kissinger?s nightmare scenario, driving Russia and China together. While America?s allies are told to bear the costs of U.S. sanctions, Russia and China are benefiting by being obliged to diversify and make their own economies independent of reliance on U.S. suppliers of food and other basic needs. Above all, these two countries are creating their own de-dollarized credit and bank-clearing systems, and holding their international monetary reserves in the form of gold, euros and each other?s currencies to conduct their mutual trade and investment. > > This de-dollarization provides an alternative to the unipolar U.S. ability to gain free foreign credit via the U.S. Treasury-bill standard for world monetary reserves. As foreign countries and their central banks de-dollarize, what will support the dollar? Without the free line of credit provided by central banks automatically recycling America?s foreign military and other overseas spending back to the U.S. economy (with only a minimal return), how can the United States balance its international payments in the face of its de-industrialization? > > The United States cannot simply reverse its de-industrialization and dependence on Chinese and other Asian labor by bringing production back home. It has built too high a rentier overhead into its economy for its labor to be able to compete internationally, given the U.S. wage-earner?s budgetary demands to pay high and rising housing and education costs, debt service and health insurance, and for privatized infrastructure services. > > The only way for the United States to sustain its international financial balance is by monopoly pricing of its arms, patented pharmaceutical and information-technology exports, and by buying control of the most lucrative production and potentially rent-extracting sectors abroad ? in other words, by spreading neoliberal economic policy throughout the world in a way that obliges other countries to depend on U.S. loans and investment. > > That is not a way for national economies to grow. The alternative to neoliberal doctrine is China?s growth policies that follow the same basic industrial logic by which Britain, the United States, Germany and France rose to industrial power during their own industrial takeoffs with strong government support and social spending programs. > > The United States has abandoned this traditional industrial policy since the 1980s. It is imposing on its own economy the neoliberal policies that de-industrialized Pinochetista Chile, Thatcherite Britain and the post-industrial former Soviet republics, the Baltics and Ukraine since 1991. Its highly polarized and debt-leveraged prosperity is based on inflating real estate and securities prices and privatizing infrastructure. > > This neoliberalism has been a path to becoming a failed economy and indeed, a failed state, obliged to suffer debt deflation, rising housing prices and rents as owner-occupancy rates decline, as well as exorbitant medical and other costs resulting from privatizing what other countries provide freely or at subsidized prices as human rights ? health care, education, medical insurance and pensions. > > The success of China?s industrial policy with a mixed economy and state control of the monetary and credit system has led U.S. strategists to fear that Western European and Asian economies may find their advantage to lie in integrating more closely with China and Russia. The U.S. seems to have no response to such a global rapprochement with China and Russia except economic sanctions and military belligerence. That New Cold War stance is expensive, and other countries are balking at bearing the cost of a conflict that has no benefit for themselves and indeed, threatens to destabilize their own economic growth and political independence. > > Without subsidy from these countries, especially as China, Russia and their neighbors de-dollarize their economies, how can the United States maintain the balance-of-payments costs of its overseas military spending? Cutting back that spending, and indeed recovering industrial self-reliance and competitive economic power, would require a transformation of American politics. Such a change seems unlikely, but without it, how long can America?s post-industrial rentier economy manage to force other countries to provide it with the economic affluence (literally a flowing-in) that it is no longer producing at home? > > Notes > > [1] https://www.state.gov/briefings/department-press-briefing-january-27-2022/ . Dismissing reporters? comments that ?what the Germans have said publicly doesn?t match with what you?re saying exactly,? she explained the U.S. tactics to stall Nord Stream 2. Countering a reporter?s point that ?all they have to do is turn it on,? she said: ?As Senator Cruz likes to say ? it is currently a hunk of metal at the bottom of the ocean. It needs to be tested. It needs to be certified. It needs to have regulatory approval.? For a recent review of the increasingly tense geopolitics at work, see John Foster, ?Pipeline Politics hits Multipolar Realities: Nord Stream 2 and the Ukraine Crisis,? Counterpunch, February 3, 2022. > > [2] Andrew Higgins, ?Fueling a Geopolitical Tussle in Eastern Europe: Fertilizer,? The New York Times, January 31, 2022. The owner plans to sue Lithuania?s government for hefty damages. > > [3] Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry, ?Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov?s answers to questions from Channel One?s Voskresnoye Vremya programme,? Moscow, January 30, 2022. Johnson?s Russia List, January 31, 2022, #9. > > ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Feb 11 03:21:19 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 10 Feb 2022 21:21:19 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Do You Want a War Between Russia and NATO?" Message-ID: "Do You Want a War Between Russia and NATO?" > Pepe Escobar ? Wednesday, February 9, 2022 ? 1,500 Words > ISTANBUL ? Emmanuel Macron is no Talleyrand. Self-promoted as ?Jupiterian?, he may have finally got down to earth for a proper realpolitik insight while ruminating one of the former French Minister of Foreign Affairs key bon mots: ?A diplomat who says ?yes? means ?maybe?, a diplomat who says ?maybe? means ?no?, and a diplomat who says ?no? is no diplomat.? > > Mr. Macron went to Moscow to see Mr. Putin with a simple 4-stage plan in mind. > > ? Clinch a wide-ranging deal with Putin on Ukraine, thus stopping ?Russian aggression?. > ? Bask in the glow as the West?s Peacemaker. > ? Raise the EU?s tawdry profile, as he?s the current president of the EU Council. > ? Collect all the spoils then bag the April presidential election in France. > Considering he all but begged for an audience in a flurry of phone calls, Macron was received by Putin with no special honors. Comic relief was provided by French mainstream media hysterics, ?military strategists? included, evoking the ?French castle? sketch in Monty Python?s Holy Grail while reaffirming every stereotype available about ?cowardly frogs?. Their ?analysis?: Putin is ?isolated? and wants ?the military option?. Their top intel source: Bezos-owned CIA rag The Washington Post. > > Still, it was fascinating to watch ? oh, that loooooong table in the Kremlin: the only EU leader who took the trouble to actually listen to Putin was the one who, months ago, pronounced NATO as ?brain-dead?. So the ghosts of Charles de Gaulle and Talleyrand did seem to have engaged in a lively chat, framed by raw economics, finally imprinting on the ?Jupiterian? that the imperial obsession on preventing Europe by all means from profiting from wider trade with Eurasia is a losing game. > > After a strenuous six hours of discussions Putin, predictably, monopolized the eminently quotable department, starting with one that will be reverberating all across the Global South for a long time: ?Citizens of Iraq, Libya, Afghanistan and Yugoslavia have seen how peaceful is NATO.? > > There?s more. The already iconic Do you want a war between Russia and NATO? ? followed by the ominous ?there will be no winners?. Or take this one, on Maidan: ?Since February 2014, Russia has considered a coup d??tat to be the source of power in Ukraine. This is a bad sandbox, we don?t like this kind of game.? > > On the Minsk agreements, the message was blunt: ?The President of Ukraine has said that he does not like any of the clauses of the Minsk agreements. Like it, or not ? be patient, my beauty. They must be fulfilled.? > > The ?real issue behind the present crisis? > > Macron for his part stressed, ?new mechanisms are needed to ensure stability in Europe, but not by revising existing agreements, perhaps new security solutions would be innovative.? So nothing that Moscow had not stressed before. He added, ?France and Russia have agreed to work together on security guarantees.? The operative term is ?France?. Not the non-agreement capable United States government. > > Anglo-American spin insisted that Putin had agreed not to launch new ?military initiatives? ? while keeping mum on what Macron promised in return. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov did not confirm any agreement. He only said that the Kremlin will engage with Macron?s dialogue proposals, ?provided that the United States also agrees with them.? And for that, as everyone knows, there?s no guarantee. > > The Kremlin has been stressing for months that Russia has no interest whatsoever in invading de facto black hole Ukraine. And Russian troops will return to their bases after exercises are over. None of this has anything to do with ?concessions? by Putin. > > And then came the bombshell: French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire ? the inspiration for one of the main characters in Michel Houellebecq?s cracking new book, An?antir ? said that the launch of Nord Stream 2 ?is one of the main components of de-escalating tensions on the Russian-Ukrainian border.? Gallic flair formulated out loud what no German had the balls to say. > > In Kiev, after his stint in Moscow, it looks like Macron properly told Zelensky which way the wind blows now. Zelensky hastily confirmed Ukraine is ready to implement the Minsk agreements; it never was, for seven long years. He also said he expects to hold a summit in the Normandy format ? Kiev, the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, Germany and France ? ?in the near future?. A meeting of Normandy format political advisers will happen in Berlin on Thursday. > > Way back in August 2020, I was already pointing to which way we were heading in the master chessboard. A few sharp minds in the Beltway, emailing their networks, did notice in my column how ?the goal of Russian and Chinese policy is to recruit Germany into a triple alliance locking together the Eurasian land mass a la Mackinder into the greatest geopolitical alliance in history, switching world power in favor of these three great powers against Anglo-Saxon sea power.? > > Now, a very high-level Deep State intel source, retired, comes down to the nitty gritty, pointing out how ?the secret negotiations between Russia and the US center around missiles going into Eastern Europe, as the US frantically drives for completing its development of hypersonic missiles.? > > The main point is that if the US places such hypersonic missiles in Romania and Poland, as planned, the time for them to reach Moscow would be 1/10 the time of a Tomahawk. It?s even worse for Russia if they are placed in the Baltics. The source notes, ?the US plan is to neutralize the more advanced defensive missile systems that seal Russia?s airspace. This is why the US has offered to allow Russia to inspect these missile sites in the future, to prove that there are no hypersonic nuclear missiles. Yet that?s not a solution, as the Raytheon missile launchers can handle both offensive and defensive missiles, so it?s possible to sneak in the offensive missiles at night. Thus everything requires continuous observation.? > > The bottom line is stark: ?This is the real issue behind the present crisis. The only solution is no missile sites allowed in Eastern Europe.? That happens to be an essential part of Russia?s demands for security guarantees. > > Sailing to Byzantium > > Alastair Crooke has demonstrated how ?the West slowly is discovering that that it has no pressure point versus Russia (its economy being relatively sanctions-proof), and its military is no match for that of Russia?s.? > > In parallel, Michael Hudson has conclusively shown how ?the threat to US dominance is that China, Russia and Mackinder?s Eurasian World Island heartland are offering better trade and investment opportunities than are available from the United States with its increasingly desperate demand for sacrifices from its NATO and other allies.? > > Quite a few of us, independent analysts from both the Global North and South, have been stressing non-stop for years that the pop Gotterdammerung in progress hinges on the end of American geopolitical control over Eurasia. Occupied Germany and Japan enforcing the strategic submission of Eurasia from the west down to the east; the ever-expanding NATO; the ever de-multiplied Empire of Bases, all the lineaments of the 75-year-plus free lunch are collapsing. > > The new groove is set to the tune of the New Silk Roads, or BRI; Russia?s unmatched hypersonic power ? and now the non-negotiable demands for security guarantees; the advent of RCEP ? the largest free trade deal on the planet uniting East Asia; the Empire all but expelled from Central Asia after the Afghan humiliation; and sooner rather than later its expulsion from the first island chain in the Western Pacific, complete with a starring role for the Chinese DF-21D ?carrier killer? missiles. > > The Ray McGovern-coined MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex) was not capable to muster the collective IQ to even begin to understand the terms of the Russia-China joint statement issued on an already historic February 4, 2022. Some in Europe actually did ? arguably located in the Elys?e Palace. > > This enlightened unpacking focuses on the interconnection of some key formulations, such as ?relations between Russia and China superior to political and military alliances of the Cold War era? and ?friendship which shows no limits?: the strategic partnership, for all its challenges ahead, is way more complex than a mere ?treaty? or ?agreement?. Without deeper understanding of Chinese and Russian civilizations, and their way of thinking, Westerners simply are not equipped to get it. > > In the end, if we manage to escape so much Western doom and gloom, we might end up navigating a warped remix of Yeats? Sailing to Byzantium. We may always dream of the best and the brightest in Europe finally sailing away from the iron grip of tawdry imperial Exceptionalistan: > > ?Once out of nature I shall never take / My bodily form from any natural thing, / But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make / Of hammered gold and gold enameling / To keep a drowsy Emperor awake; / Or set upon a golden bough to sing /To lords and ladies of Byzantium / Of what is past, or passing, or to come.? > > ### From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Feb 11 20:10:43 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 14:10:43 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Censorship Message-ID: <27811772-4E57-4A47-8657-7FCF530DD380@newsfromneptune.com> October 16, 2020 Dear readers of the Strategic Culture Foundation website, In September 2020, the Strategic Culture Foundation was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube following unsubstantiated claims that it was connected with Russian intelligence services and interfered in the US presidential elections on their orders. It means that you can?t find us on these platforms and, moreover, if you try to post any links leading to SCF on your personal page, you will most likely not be allowed to do that. This case provides a glimpse into the dystopian future of suppressing dissident voices by governments previously known as democratic. The overall picture is not that dire, though. You can follow us on Telegram and VK and sign up for our newsletter. Please spread the message if you value the freedom of information as we do. Sincerely, Strategic Culture Foundation From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Feb 11 20:17:52 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 14:17:52 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] US seeks to provoke war in Europe References: <20220211140720.26682108.93110@sailthru.com> Message-ID: <824384B5-0D83-41EE-BD52-E3A5B285C0BB@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: New York Post > Subject: Breaking: Putin has decided to invade Ukraine: report > Date: February 11, 2022 at 1:07:20 PM CST > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > > If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here . > > > > FEBRUARY 11, 2022 > US officials believe Putin has decided to invade Ukraine: report > > US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and an attack could take place as soon as next week, according to a report out Friday. > > https://nypost.com/2022/02/11/us-expects-russia-to-invade-ukraine-next-week-report/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moboct1 at aol.com Fri Feb 11 23:49:57 2022 From: moboct1 at aol.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 23:49:57 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] Censorship In-Reply-To: <27811772-4E57-4A47-8657-7FCF530DD380@newsfromneptune.com> References: <27811772-4E57-4A47-8657-7FCF530DD380@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: <1562056365.514604.1644623397940@mail.yahoo.com> -----Original Message----- From: C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss To: Peace Cc: peace-discuss at anti-war.net Sent: Fri, Feb 11, 2022 2:11 pm Subject: [Peace-discuss] Censorship October 16, 2020 Dear readers of the Strategic Culture Foundation website, In September 2020, the Strategic Culture Foundation was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube following unsubstantiated claims that it was connected with Russian intelligence services and interfered in the US presidential elections on their orders. It means that you can?t find us on these platforms and, moreover, if you try to post any links leading to SCF on your personal page, you will most likely not be allowed to do that. This case provides a glimpse into the dystopian future of suppressing dissident voices by governments previously known as democratic. The overall picture is not that dire, though. You can follow us on Telegram and VK and sign up for our newsletter. Please spread the message if you value the freedom of information as we do. Sincerely, Strategic Culture Foundation _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Feb 11 23:50:12 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 18:50:12 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] US seeks to provoke war in Europe In-Reply-To: <824384B5-0D83-41EE-BD52-E3A5B285C0BB@newsfromneptune.com> References: <20220211140720.26682108.93110@sailthru.com> <824384B5-0D83-41EE-BD52-E3A5B285C0BB@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: Is it an ok time for some Friday evening anti-imperialist gallows humor? I had a mean, politically incorrect idea for a cartoon. Frame 1: "Honey, let's go see the new Hollywood movie." Frame 2: "It's about Biden's foreign policy." Frame 3: "What's it called, honey?" Frame 4: "'Get Out!'" And in Frame 4, you see the guy is watching CNN. And the CNN headline is: "BIDEN TELLS AMERICANS TO LEAVE UKRAINE IN 48 HOURS" On Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 3:18 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > Begin forwarded message: > > *From: *New York Post > *Subject: **Breaking: Putin has decided to invade Ukraine: report* > *Date: *February 11, 2022 at 1:07:20 PM CST > *To: *cgestabrook at gmail.com > > If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here > > . > > > > > > > > [image: News Alerts] > FEBRUARY > 11, 2022 > US officials believe Putin has decided to invade Ukraine: report > > > US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to > invade Ukraine and an attack could take place as soon as next week, > according to a report out Friday. > > > > https://nypost.com/2022/02/11/us-expects-russia-to-invade-ukraine-next-week-report/ > > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From moboct1 at aim.com Fri Feb 11 23:54:00 2022 From: moboct1 at aim.com (Mildred O'brien) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 23:54:00 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] Censorship In-Reply-To: <27811772-4E57-4A47-8657-7FCF530DD380@newsfromneptune.com> References: <27811772-4E57-4A47-8657-7FCF530DD380@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: <1453404675.521394.1644623640259@mail.yahoo.com> I like Joe Bauers' column on censorship in the Sunday Feb 6 News Gazette. mo'b? -----Original Message----- From: C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss To: Peace Cc: peace-discuss at anti-war.net Sent: Fri, Feb 11, 2022 2:11 pm Subject: [Peace-discuss] Censorship October 16, 2020 Dear readers of the Strategic Culture Foundation website, In September 2020, the Strategic Culture Foundation was banned from Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube following unsubstantiated claims that it was connected with Russian intelligence services and interfered in the US presidential elections on their orders. It means that you can?t find us on these platforms and, moreover, if you try to post any links leading to SCF on your personal page, you will most likely not be allowed to do that. This case provides a glimpse into the dystopian future of suppressing dissident voices by governments previously known as democratic. The overall picture is not that dire, though. You can follow us on Telegram and VK and sign up for our newsletter. Please spread the message if you value the freedom of information as we do. Sincerely, Strategic Culture Foundation _______________________________________________ Peace-discuss mailing list Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sat Feb 12 03:12:13 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 21:12:13 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Proposal: Just Run All Western News Media Directly Out Of CIA Headquarters References: <20220212025309.2.b087c588916f4f07.0yc2dot6@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: <30680601-ED32-425A-B7BC-1CFEBF7818DF@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Caitlin Johnstone from Caitlin?s Newsletter > Subject: Proposal: Just Run All Western News Media Directly Out Of CIA Headquarters > Date: February 11, 2022 at 8:53:09 PM CST > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: Caitlin Johnstone from Caitlin?s Newsletter > > > Proposal: Just Run All Western News Media Directly Out Of CIA Headquarters > > Caitlin Johnstone > Feb 12 > > Listen to a reading of this article: > > Proposal: Just Run All Western News Media Directly Out Of CIA Headquarters by Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone > Going Rogue With Caitlin Johnstone > I think it would be a lot more efficient and straightforward if all English-language news media were just run directly out of CIA headquarters?by agency officials in Langley, Virginia. This way news reporters could eliminate the middleman and drop the undignified charade of presenting unproven assertions by western intelligence agencies as "scoops" that they picked up from "sources". I mean, right now the mass media are churning out stories about "intelligence" which says Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine very soon, citing government officials and anonymous sources. We are never shown the "intelligence", and we are never shown any evidence of its veracity; we're simply told what opaque and unaccountable government agencies want us to believe about a foreign government. We're not even reminded by the publishers of these CIA press releases that western intelligence agencies have a very extensive history of lying about exactly this sort of thing, and we're certainly not informed that Kyiv appears to be ramping up aggressions in eastern Ukraine. Reading by Tim Foley. > ? > > I think it would be a lot more efficient and straightforward if all English-language news media were just run directly out of CIA headquarters by agency officials in Langley, Virginia. This way news reporters could eliminate the middleman and drop the undignified charade of presenting unproven assertions by western intelligence agencies as "scoops" that they picked up from "sources". > > I mean, right now the mass media are churning out stories about "intelligence " which says Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine very soon , citing government officials and anonymous sources. We are never shown the "intelligence", and we are never shown any evidence of its veracity; we're simply told what opaque and unaccountable government agencies want us to believe about a foreign government. We're not even reminded by the publishers of these CIA press releases that western intelligence agencies have a very extensive history of lying about exactly this sort of thing, and we're certainly not informed that Kyiv appears to be ramping up aggressions in eastern Ukraine. > > Seriously, look at this absurd tweet by CNN's Natasha Bertrand: > > > Natasha Bertrand > @NatashaBertrand > Scoop: US and allies have new intel that suggests Russia could be planning to attack Ukraine prior to end of Olympics, contrary to previous assessments. New intel comes as officials have dramatically ramped up the urgency of public warnings related to Ukraine in past 24 hours. > February 11th 2022 > > 1,794 Retweets4,905 Likes > > That's not a "scoop". That's just a news media employee repeating something she was told either directly or indirectly by the western intelligence cartel. She's literally just telling us what an immensely powerful spy intelligence agency told her to say. And that's become the norm for mass media reporting on all nations the western power alliance doesn't like, especially Russia. > > So why mess around? Why not just move CNN's office into the George Bush Center for Intelligence in Langley and have the CIA just publish its reports directly from there? I hear CNN needs a new president anyway. That way nobody needs to pretend they're doing news reporting instead of intelligence agency stenography, the general public is clear that they're being fed whatever story about reality the CIA wants them to believe, and nobody feels like they're being treated like a fool. > > Because it must get pretty tedious, right? Where instead of just having your CIA employer tell you to run a story you have to go through this whole song and dance where an agency officer contacts you and says "Ooh buddy, have I got a scoop for you!" and then you type up what they say in newsy-sounding language citing "sources familiar with the matter" and present it as a news story. > > Clearly that's not news reporting. Clearly it's nothing other than garden variety state propaganda. So why not just be forthright about it? I know the CIA has a lot going on right now, but surely it can make some space in all its domestic surveillance , lying, torturing , drug trafficking , coup-staging , warmongering and assassinations for a little more state media news punditry? > > > Radio Free Amanda ??? > @catcontentonly > Ukraine Defense Minister: Russia is not invading anytime soon > > Ukraine President: Russia is not invading anytime soon > > Russia: We have no plans to invade Ukraine > > The US: > MSNBC @MSNBC > "We want to be crystal clear on this point: Any American in Ukraine should leave as soon as possible and in any event, the next 24-48 hours," National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan says. https://t.co/DAlAuBYXHR > February 11th 2022 > > 899 Retweets3,317 Likes > > And of course we already know the answer to that question. Propaganda doesn't work if its targets know they are being propagandized. It needs to be administered by institutions who the public trusts to tell them the objective truth about what's going on in the world. If the US and its Five Eyes allies simply controlled all media through the government like overtly totalitarian regimes, their propaganda would actually be far less effective than the systems of domestic perception management they have in place currently. > > The CIA is officially forbidden from operating in the United States (though as we've seen many times since its creation and up to the present day this is treated more as a guideline than a restriction), but what it is not officially forbidden to do is contact the media directly or through a proxy under the pretense of feeding them a news story which just so happens to advance the interests of the agency. The plutocratic media who benefit from the same status quo that the CIA protects then uncritically funnel that information into the minds of the unsuspecting public, and before you know it they're rending their garments over a foreign government they'd previously not thought much about. > > In an actual free society with an actual free press, the very idea of this would be outrageous and if such a thing ever occurred it would be immediately condemned as journalistic malpractice with severe consequences for everyone involved. In an inverted totalitarian dystopia with the most effectively propagandized population on earth, it's just treated as normal. > > _________________________ > > My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, following me on Facebook , Twitter , Soundcloud or YouTube , or throwing some money into my tip jar on Ko-fi , Patreon or Paypal . If you want to read more you can buy my books . The best way to make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I?ve written) in any way they like free of charge. For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I?m trying to do with this platform, click here . > > > Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 > Like > Comment > Share > > If you liked this post from Caitlin?s Newsletter , why not share it? > Share > ? 2022 Caitlin Johnstone Unsubscribe > 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sat Feb 12 04:04:33 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 11 Feb 2022 22:04:33 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] US seeks to provoke war in Europe In-Reply-To: References: <20220211140720.26682108.93110@sailthru.com> <824384B5-0D83-41EE-BD52-E3A5B285C0BB@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: <40C0E32C-80DB-4260-9C6C-41FB2E118B65@newsfromneptune.com> And if Americans had got out of Ukraine in 2014 - instead of engineering a revolt that brought a Nazi-infested government to power - they might not now be able to promote false-flag operations to extend NATO military & economic control. > On Feb 11, 2022, at 5:50 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > > Is it an ok time for some Friday evening anti-imperialist gallows humor? > > I had a mean, politically incorrect idea for a cartoon. > > Frame 1: "Honey, let's go see the new Hollywood movie." > > Frame 2: "It's about Biden's foreign policy." > > Frame 3: "What's it called, honey?" > > Frame 4: "'Get Out!'" > > And in Frame 4, you see the guy is watching CNN. And the CNN headline is: > > "BIDEN TELLS AMERICANS TO LEAVE UKRAINE IN 48 HOURS" > > On Fri, Feb 11, 2022 at 3:18 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: > > >> Begin forwarded message: >> >> From: New York Post >> Subject: Breaking: Putin has decided to invade Ukraine: report >> Date: February 11, 2022 at 1:07:20 PM CST >> To: cgestabrook at gmail.com >> >> If you are having trouble viewing this email, click here. >> >> >> >> FEBRUARY 11, 2022 >> US officials believe Putin has decided to invade Ukraine: report >> >> US officials believe Russian President Vladimir Putin has decided to invade Ukraine and an attack could take place as soon as next week, according to a report out Friday. >> >> >> https://nypost.com/2022/02/11/us-expects-russia-to-invade-ukraine-next-week-report/ > > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Feb 12 13:32:57 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 07:32:57 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended videos for AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV Message-ID: <0527d056fc1e9d3ff0118d157c207c6e1737b505.camel@forestfield.org> Here are the videos I recommended to run during AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV. As a reminder: If anyone else has anything to run, please feel free to get your video pointers to UPTV (UPTV at urbanaillinois.us). I have continued to ask UPTV to prioritize AWARE members video pointers over mine for AWARE on the Air, Carl Estabrook & David Green's video pointers over mine for News from Neptune, and David Johnson's video pointers over mine for Labor's World View TV. Enjoy. -J News from Neptune & AWARE on the Air ================================================== RT https://youtube.com/watch?v=i8SFLXzO2N0 -- (28m 43s) Framing Leonard Peltier https://youtube.com/watch?v=0lQ8_2YIbYc -- (6m) John Kiriakou reveals source of Assange-trial 'optimism' https://youtube.com/watch?v=d9saK7uSRSM -- (25m 32s) Veganism & Mass Incarceration https://youtube.com/watch?v=eoVGR2v21Hs -- (9m 6s) Freedom Convoy? Truckers arrested; Ottawans fed up with occupation BreakThrough News https://youtube.com/watch?v=aheldJAcGIw -- (22m 50s) Amnesty Intl Finally Joins World in Condemning Apartheid, Israel Freaks Out, w/ Ali Abunimah https://youtube.com/watch?v=afvSQXyCVew -- (1h 16m 7s) U.S. Prepares for War with China, 50 Years After Nixon?s Visit and Shanghai Communiqu? The Real News Network https://youtube.com/watch?v=MsYJHPjJD7c -- (1h 13m 42s) Chris Hedges: Mass politics must be rooted in class struggle MintPressNews https://youtube.com/watch?v=0hltrGHvzdA -- (50m 42s) USAID, NATO Threaten Intervention as Ethiopia, Eritrea Unite & Form Economic Cooperation with China https://youtube.com/watch?v=pIbutaXh_oI -- (1h 31m 18s) Media Beats Drums of War w/ Russia Over Ukraine While US-Saudis Block Yemen's Internet For Days https://youtube.com/watch?v=5QXDM195G4I -- (2m 42s) Mnar Adley exposes the National Endowment for Democracy https://youtube.com/watch?v=epvUmt5sAKk -- (20m 9s) Mainstream Media Melts Down as National ?Defeat the Mandates DC? Rally Overcomes Political Divides Green and Red Podcast https://youtube.com/watch?v=5nd0cN7MVHk -- (44m 37s) Noam Chomsky on Oliver Stone's "JFK Revisited" Labor's World View TV ================================================== RT https://youtube.com/watch?v=rR1V8AVrXHU -- (1m 10s) 'Ethical' Chocolate Brand Uses 1,700 Child Workers in Supply Chain https://youtube.com/watch?v=Mt1WGT8RAIg -- (2m 27s) Trudeau's Response to COVID Protest Drive Canadians to the Streets https://youtube.com/watch?v=TFWPOipEHHU (29m 57s) ?We?re Part of the Freedom Convoy and It?s a Show of Unity Not Hate? https://youtube.com/watch?v=eoVGR2v21Hs -- (9m 6s) Freedom Convoy? Truckers arrested; Ottawans fed up with occupation https://youtube.com/watch?v=r73eXCH9_IM -- (4m 26s) Amazon Funds A High School Class BreakThrough News https://youtube.com/watch?v=wttXpnSF0m0 -- (12m 13s) Chicago Teachers Union VP: ?We Have Turned the Paradigm Upside Down? in Fight for Safe Schools The Real News Network https://youtube.com/watch?v=MsYJHPjJD7c -- (1h 13m 42s) Chris Hedges: Mass politics must be rooted in class struggle MintPressNews https://youtube.com/watch?v=epvUmt5sAKk -- (20m 9s) Mainstream Media Melts Down as National ?Defeat the Mandates DC? Rally Overcomes Political Divides From jbn at forestfield.org Sun Feb 13 01:28:25 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2022 19:28:25 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Primo Radical's interview with Medea Benjamin Message-ID: <8db43db2-6b2f-e1c8-0979-fc3a7ca37cc4@forestfield.org> Primo Radical's interview with Medea Benjamin of CODEPINK on CODEPINK's Nationwide Protest Against War with Russia https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rpo-g3Mlc2M https://rumble.com/vu2qpd-primo-radical-260-medea-benjamin-no-war-with-russia.html This interview includes a clip of the US Government's State Dept. representative pushing an unsubstantiated claim that Russia will stage a false flag attack. I would not be surprised if YouTube censors this interview and Rumble becomes Primo Radical's new home for videos. From carl at newsfromneptune.com Wed Feb 16 02:51:47 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2022 20:51:47 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Russian Propaganda" Means Disputing US Propaganda Message-ID: https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/russian-propaganda-means-disputing From carl at newsfromneptune.com Wed Feb 16 04:21:14 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 15 Feb 2022 22:21:14 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_The_Twists_and_Turns_of_Erdogan?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=99s_Foreign_Policy?= References: <20220215150047.1.2D8BA8DAF9BC5EA2@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: <98A3D6BA-2D54-432E-BF45-0D2B16914B74@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Pepe Escobar / The Unz Review > Subject: The Twists and Turns of Erdogan?s Foreign Policy > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > > The Unz Review ? An Alternative Media Selection Subscribe > A Collection of Interesting, Important, and Controversial Perspectives Largely Excluded from the American Mainstream Media > The Twists and Turns of Erdogan?s Foreign Policy Pepe Escobar ? Monday, February 14, 2022 ? 2,000 Words > The information dropped like a Hellfire in the middle of a productive discussion with a group of top analysts in Istanbul: Across the Turkish establishment ? from politicians to the military ? over 90 percent are pro-NATO. > > Eurasian ?hopefuls? in West Asia need to factor in this hard truth about Turkey?s oft-confusing foreign policies. The ?Erdoganian neo-Ottomanism? that runs through Turkey?s current ruling system is deeply colonized by a NATO psyche ? which implies that any notion of real Turkish sovereignty may be severely overvalued. > > And that sheds new light on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan?s perennial geopolitical waffling between NATO and Eurasia. > > Let?s start with the mediation offered by Erdogan on the Russia-Ukraine drama, which for all practical purposes would mean a mediation between Russia and NATO. > > Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu may not be the one dictating Ankara?s policy ? my interlocutors stress that the man who really has Erdogan?s ears is his spokesman Ibrahim Kalin. Still, Cavusoglu?s latest talking points were quite intriguing: > > ?Russian and Belarussian sources? told him there will be no ?invasion? of Ukraine. > The West ?should be more careful? in making statements ?about the allegedly possible ?invasion?, as they lead to panic in Ukraine.? > ?We, as Turkey, are not a part of a conflict, war, problem, however, any tension affects us all, the economy, energy security, tourism.? > ?We will have a phone conversation with [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov on Wednesday, [then] with [Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro] Kuleba. We will happily agree to mediate if both parties agree. We gladly agree to host a meeting of the Minsk trio.? > ?[Russian President Vladimir] Putin should not close the door. They [the Russians] don?t have a positive or negative answer.? > Ankara?s efforts in positioning itself as a mediator may be laudable, but what Cavusoglu cannot possibly admit in public is their futility. > > As much as Ankara enjoys good relations with Kiev ? Bayraktar TB2 drone sales included ? the heart of the matter is not even between Russia and NATO; it?s between Moscow and Washington. > > Moreover, Erdogan?s offer had already been sidelined by notorious opportunist ? and totally out of his depth ? Emmanuel Macron, via his meme-celebrated visit to Moscow, where he was politely but bluntly dismissed by Putin. > > The Kremlin has been making it very clear, even before issuing its demands on security guarantees, that the only interlocutors that matter are the people in charge ? as in the Russophobic/neocon/humanitarian-imperialist combo that remote controls the current president of the United States. > > How to ?Make Turkey Great Again? > > It will be a hard slog to ?Make Turkey Great Again? in Washington, even if they?re both part of the NATO matrix. It?s one thing to inaugurate the \$300 million Turkevi Center ? or Turkish House ? in Manhattan, near the UN headquarters, complete with a top-floor presidential suite for Erdogan. But entirely another thing for the Americans to allow him real sovereignty. > > Still, whenever he?s snubbed, Erdogan always comes up with a thorny counter. If he is prevented from meeting the real players behind ?Biden? last September in New York and Washington, he can always announce, as he did, his intention to buy yet another batch of Russian S-400s which, irony of ironies, is a missile system designed to destroy NATO weaponry. As Erdogan then boldly proclaimed: ?In the future, nobody will be able to interfere in terms of what kind of defense systems we acquire, from which country, at what level.? > > Global South players, from West Asia and beyond, have been following with enormous interest (and trepidation) how Ankara, from a secular, well-behaved NATO semi-colony on the periphery of the EU eager to join the Brussels machine, turned into an Islamist-tinged regional hegemon ? complete with supporting and weaponizing ?moderate rebels? in Syria, dispatching military advisers to Libya, propelling Azerbaijan with armed drones to defeat Armenia, and last but not least, promoting their own, idiosyncratic version of Eurasian integration. > > The trouble is how Turkey is supposed to pay for all this ambitious overreach ? considering the dire state of its economy. > > Quite a few Justice and Development Party (AKP) politicians in Ankara are avid promoters of a ?Turkic world? that would stretch not only from the Caucasus to Central Asia but all the way to Yakutia, in Russia?s far east, and Xinjiang, in China?s far west. It isn?t hard to imagine how this is viewed in Moscow and Beijing. > > It was actually Devlet Bahceli, the leader of the ultra-right-wing Nationalist Movement Party (MHP), a top Erdogan ally, who presented a revised map of the Turkic world to the Turkish president. > > The response by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, who happens to be a Turkologist, was priceless. At the time, he said that the heart of the Turkic world should be in the Altai mountains. That is, in Russia; not Turkey. > > And that brings us to the Organization of Turkic States (OTS) , the new denomination of the former Turkic Council, as approved by their 8th summit last November in Istanbul. > > The OTS has five members (Turkey, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan) and two observers (Hungary and Turkmenistan). The secretary-general is a Kazakh diplomat, Baghdad Amreyev . > > An initial visit to their lovely, salmon-colored historical palace in Sultanahmet ? prior to an upcoming official conversation ? establishes some much needed context. Among the dazzling Byzantine and Ottoman neighboring structures, we find the tomb of the last Ottoman Sultan, Abdulhamid II, who happens to be none other than Erdogan?s role model. > > Depending on who you talk to ? the largely AKP-controlled media or Kemalist intellectuals ? Abdulhamid II is either a venerable religious leader fighting subversives and the Western colonial powers in the late 19th century or a retrograde, fanatical nutcase. > > The OTS is an immensely intriguing organization. It brings together a NATO member with the second most-powerful army (Turkey); an EU member (Hungary, yet still an observer); two CSTO members, that is, states very close to Russia (Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan); and a supremely idiosyncratic, permanently-neutral gas superpower (Turkmenistan). > > Even at OTS headquarters they agree, smiles included, that no one outside Turkey knows about the real aims of the organization, which are loosely framed as investment in connectivity, small and medium enterprises (SMEs), green technologies and smart cities. Most of the investment would be supposed to come from Turkish companies. > > Until recently, Erdogan was not exactly focused on the Turkic world in Central Asia ? which was considered too secular from an Islamist point of view, or even worse, a bunch of dreaded crypto-Kemalists. The focus was on the US-defined MENA (Middle East/Northern Africa) region ? which happened, historically, to include the key Ottoman lands. > > The record, of course, shows that these neo-Ottoman incursions did not go down so well in Muslim lands. Hence the spectacular re-entrance of Eurasia into Turkish foreign policy. It may sound swell in theory, but way more complicated in practice. > > Crisscrossing Eurasia > > The OTS may be unified by language ? but you won?t find many people speaking Turkish across Central Asia: they?re all about Russian. > > History and culture is a different story, and it goes something like this: > > As Peskov correctly pointed out, the Turcophone peoples originally came from the Altai mountains ? between Mongolia and Central Asia. Between the 7th and the 17th centuries, they were invested in a conquering migration drive in the opposite direction compared to Alexander The Great and his Hellenistic successors, the Seleucid kings and then the Arabs under Islam. > > So, for a long time, we had a few ephemeral empires founded by Turkish dynasties and built essentially over Persian Sassanid structures, with an add-on by Turkmen groups, until the Ottomans, based on Byzantine structures, established an imperial system that lasted for no less than five centuries. > > In terms of ancient connectivity, the route of the steppes lay more to the north of Eurasia ? and was followed in the 13th century, with spectacular success, by Genghis Khan and his successors. We all know today that the Mongols built the very first, real Eurasia-wide empire. And in the process, they also took the southern route traveled by the Turks and Turkmen. > > Just like the Persian, Greek and Arab empires, the Turkic and Mongol empires were bent on continental conquest. The main line of communication across Eurasia was always, in the precise definition by Toynbee, ?the steppe and desert chains that cut across the belt of civilizations, from Sahara to Mongolia.? > > Much like China?s recent revamp of the Silk Road concept, Erdogan ? even as he?s not a reader and much less a historian ? also has his own neo-Ottoman interpretation of what makes connectivity run. > > Instinctively, to his credit, he seems to have understood how the conquering migration runs of the Turko-Mongols from Central Asia towards West Asia ended up shattering this huge zone of discontinuity, very hard to move around, between East Asia and Europe. > > The sun ?rises again from the East? > > Erdogan himself went no-Eurasia-holds-barred at the November summit of the OTS: ?Inshallah, the sun will soon start to rise once again from the East.? > > But that ?East? was very specific: ?The Turkestan region, which had been the cradle of civilization for thousands of years, will once again be a center of attraction and enlightenment for the entirety of humanity.? > > The mere mention of ?Turkestan? certainly sent shivers all across the Zhongnanhai in Beijing. At the OTS though, they assure the organization has absolutely no designs on Xinjiang: ?It?s not a state. We unite Turkic states.? > > Much more relevant to the ground is the OTS drive towards ?sustainable multimodal connectivity.? > > Enter a twin strategy juxtaposing the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor Initiative ? a trans-Eurasia link ? and the Zangezur corridor , linking the South Caucasus to both Europe and Central Asia. > > Zangezur is absolutely key for Ankara, because it allows for a direct link not only to its key OTS ally Azerbaijan but also to Turkic Central Asia. For the past three decades, this connectivity route happened to be blocked by Armenia. Not anymore. Still, a final agreement with Armenia is pending. > > In theory, the Chinese New Silk Roads ? or Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) ? and the Turkish Middle Corridor binding the Turkic world are complementary. Yet only (connectivity) facts on the ground will tell, in time. > > The fact is, Turkey is already neck deep in a major connectivity drive. Take the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway connecting Turkey, Georgia and Azerbaijan. Ankara may not have anything nearly approaching the scale and scope of the BRI master road map, which plans all steps to 2049. > > What has been designed is a Turkic World Vision ? 2040, adopted at the OTS summit, with the Middle Corridor billed as ?the shortest and safest transport link between East and West,? including a new special economic zone (SEZ) called Turan, in Kazakhstan, to be launched in 2022. > > This SEZ will be exclusively for OTS members and observers. The Turan steppe, significantly, is also considered by many in Turkey as the original home of Turkic peoples. It remains to be seen how Turan will interact with the Khorgos SEZ, at the Kazakh-Chinese border, an essential node of BRI. As it stands, the view that Ankara will pose a major systemic threat to Beijing in the long run are mere speculations. > > The bottom line is that the OTS is part of a larger Erdogan initiative also not well known outside Turkey: Asia Anew. It?s this initiative that will be guiding Ankara?s expanding connections across Asia, with the OTS promoted as one among many ?tools of regional cooperation.? > > Whether Ankara can leverage this vastly ambitious strategic reading of geography and history to build a new sphere of influence depends on a lot of Turkish lira that the Erdogan coffers sorely lack. > > Meanwhile, why not dream of becoming Sultan of Eurasia? Well, Abdulhamid II would never have thought that his future pupil would upstage him by going East ? like Alexander The Great ? and not West. > ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From r-szoke at illinois.edu Thu Feb 17 02:02:57 2022 From: r-szoke at illinois.edu (Szoke, Ron) Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 02:02:57 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Keep on truckin' ? Message-ID: OPINION : GUEST ESSAY There?s a Reason Trump Loves the Truckers NYT Feb. 16, 2022 By Thomas B. Edsall https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/16/opinion/ottawa-truckers-trump.html The truckers? protest in Ottawa is the latest barrage from the world?s disaffected in the revolt that found expression in the 2016 election of Donald Trump; the 2017 Unite the Right march on Charlottesville, Va.; the rise of QAnon; and the Jan. 6 insurrection in the halls of Congress. One thing that stands out in the Canadian truckers? protests against vaccination requirements specifically and the Trudeau government generally is the strong support they are getting from conservative political leaders and media figures in this country. ?We want those great Canadian truckers to know that we are with them all the way,? Trump told rallygoers in Conroe, Texas, on Jan. 29. ?I see they have Trump signs all over the place and I?m proud that they do,? he added. On Feb. 12, Trump brought it home to America during a Fox News appearance, ?That?s what happens, you can push people so far and our country is a tinderbox too, don?t kid yourself.? ? ? # # # From brussel at illinois.edu Thu Feb 17 03:56:34 2022 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 03:56:34 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Matlock's rational, reasonable, powerful, evaluations Message-ID: Gets to the point better, more lucidly, than Chomsky on what has happened, and continues, with US-Russian relations. Matlock knows from personal experience. Read it, think about it. Spread its message. https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/16/ukraine-crisis-should-have-been-avoided/ ?mkb -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Feb 17 20:03:34 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:03:34 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Pepe_Escobar=2C_=22This_Is_How_the_U?= =?utf-8?b?LlMuIERvZXMg4oCYRGlhbG9ndWXigJkiIChKYW4uIDEzLCAyMDIyKQ==?= Message-ID: https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/01/13/this-is-how-us-does-dialogue/ This Is How the U.S. Does ?Dialogue? Pepe Escobar January 13, 2022 Washington will not consider Russian proposals on no expansion of NATO, and has no intention of even discussing the idea. So much for ?dialogue?. It was the first high-level Russia-NATO meeting since 2019 ? coming immediately after the non sequitur of the U.S.-Russia ?security guarantee? non-dialogue dialogue earlier in the week in Geneva. So what happened in Brussels? Essentially yet another non-dialogue dialogue ? complete with a Kafkaesque NATO preface: we?re prepared for dialogue, but the Kremlin?s proposals are unacceptable. This was a double down on the American envoy to NATO, Julianne Smith, preemptively blaming Russia for the actions that ?accelerated this disaster?. By now every sentient being across Eurasia and its European peninsula should be familiar with Russia?s top two, rational demands: no further NATO expansion, and no missile systems stationed near its borders. Now let?s switch to the spin machine. NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg?s platitudes were predictably faithful to his spectacular mediocrity. On the already pre-empted dialogue, he said it was ?important to start a dialogue?. Russia, he said, ?urged NATO to refuse to admit Ukraine; the alliance responded by refusing to compromise on enlargement?. Yet NATO ?welcomed bilateral consultations? on security guarantees. NATO also proposed a series of broad security consultations, and ?Russia has not yet agreed, but has not ruled out them either.? No wonder: the Russians had already noted, even before it happened, that this is noting but stalling tactics. The Global South will be relieved to know that Stoltenberg defended NATO?s military blitzkriegs in both Kosovo and Libya: after all ?they fell under UN mandates?. So they were benign. Not a word on NATO?s stellar performance in Afghanistan. And then, the much-awaited clincher: NATO worries about Russian troops ?on the border with Ukraine? ? actually from 130 km to 180 km away, inside European Russian territory. And the alliance considers ?untrue? that expansion is ?an aggressive act?. Why? Because ?it spreads democracy?. Bomb me to democracy, baby So here?s the NATO gospel in a flash. Now compare it with the sobering words of Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko. Grushko carefully enounced how ?NATO is determined to contain Russia. The United States and its allies are trying to achieve superiority in all areas and in all possible theaters of military operations.? That was a veiled reference to Full Spectrum Dominance, which since 2002 remains the American gospel. Grushko also referred to ?Cold War-era containment tactics?, and that ?all cooperation [with Russia] has been halted? ? by NATO. Still, ?Russia honestly and directly pointed out to NATO that a further slide of the situation could lead to dire consequences for European security.? The conclusion was stark: ?The Russian Federation and NATO do not have a unifying positive agenda at all.? Virtually all Russophobic factions of the bipartisan War Inc. machine in Washington cannot possibly accept that there should be no forces stationed on European states that were not members of NATO in 1997; and that current NATO members should attempt no military intervention in Ukraine as well as in other Eastern European, Transcaucasian, and Central Asian states. On Monday in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister Ryabkov had already stressed, once again, that Russia?s red line is unmovable: ?For us, it?s absolutely mandatory to make sure that Ukraine never, never, ever becomes a member of NATO.? Diplomatic sources confirmed that in Geneva, Ryabkov and his team had for all practical purposes to act like teachers in kindergarten, making sure there would be ?no misunderstandings?. Now compare it with the U.S. State Department?s Ned Price, speaking after those grueling eight hours shared between Ryabkov and Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman: Washington will not consider Russian proposals on no expansion of NATO, and has no intention of even discussing the idea. So much for ?dialogue?. Ryabkov confirmed there was no progress. Referring to his didacticism, he had to stress, ?We are calling on the U.S. to demonstrate a maximum of responsibility at this moment. Risks related to a possible increase of confrontation shouldn?t be underestimated.? To say, in Ryabkov?s words, that ?significant? Russian effort has been made to persuade the Americans that ?playing with fire? is not in their interests is the euphemism of the young century. Let me sanction you to oblivion A quick recap is crucial to understand how things could have derailed so fast. NATO?s not exactly secret strategy, from the beginning, has been to pressure Moscow to directly negotiate with Kiev on Donbass, even though Russia is not mentioned in the Minsk Agreements. While Moscow was being forced to become part of the Ukraine/Donbass confrontation, it barely broke a sweat smashing a coup cum color revolution in Belarus. Afterwards, the Russians assembled in no time an impressive strike force ? with corresponding military infrastructure ? in European Russia territory to respond in lightning quick fashion in case there was a Ukrainian blitzkrieg in Donbass. No wonder an alarmed NATOstan had to do something about the notion of fighting Russia to the last impoverished Ukrainian. They may at least have understood that Ukraine would be completely destroyed. The beauty is how Moscow turned things around with a new geopolitical jiu-jitsu move. Ukro-dementia encouraged by NATO ? complete with empty promises of becoming a member ? opened the way for Russia to demand no further NATO expansion, with the withdrawal of all military infrastructure from Eastern Europe to boot. It was obvious that Ryabkov, in his talks with Sherman, would refuse any suggestion that Russia should dismantle the logistical infrastructure set up in its own European Russia territory. For all practical purposes, Ryabkov smashed Sherman to bits. What was left was meek threats of more sanctions. Still, it will be a Sisyphean task to convince the Empire and its NATO satrapies not to stage some sort of military adventure in Ukraine. That?s the gist of what Ryabkov and Grushko said over and over again in Geneva and Brussels. They also had to stress the obvious: if further sanctions are imposed on Russia, there would be severe blowback especially in Europe. But how is it humanly possible for seasoned pros like Ryabkov and Grushko to argue, rationally, with a bunch of amateur blind bats such as Blinken, Sullivan, Nuland and Sherman? There has been some serious speculation on the timeframe ahead for Russia to in fact not even bother to listen to the American ?baby babble? (copyright Maria Zakharova) anymore. Could be around 2027, or even 2025. What?s happening next is that the five-year extension of the new START treaty expires in February 2026. Then there will be no ceiling for nuclear strategic weapons. The Power of Siberia 2 gas pipeline to China will make Gazprom even less dependent on the European market. The combined Russia-China financial system will become nearly impervious to U.S. sanctions. The Russia-China strategic partnership will be sharing even more substantial military tech. All of that is way more consequential than the dirty secret that is not a secret in the current ?security guarantees? kabuki: the exceptionalist, ?indispensable? nation is congenitally incapable of giving up on the forever expansion of NATO to, well, outer space. At the same time, the Russians are very much aware of a quite prosaic truth; the U.S. will not fight for Ukraine. So welcome to Instagrammed Irrationalism. What happens next? Most possibly a provocation, with the possibility, for instance, of a chemical black ops to be blamed on Russia, followed by ? what else ? more sanctions. The package is ready. It comes in the form of a bill by Dem senators supported by the White House to bring ?severe costs? to the Russian economy in case Moscow finally answers their prayers and ?invades? Ukraine. Sanctions would directly hit President Putin, Prime Minister Mishustin, Foreign Minister Lavrov, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Gen Gerasimov, and ?commanders of various branches of the Armed Forces, including the Air Force and Navy.? Targeted banks and financial institutions include Sberbank, VTB, Gazprombank, Moscow Credit Bank, Alfa-Bank, Otkritie Bank, PSB, Sovcombank, Transcapitalbank, and the Russian Direct Investment Fund. They would all be cut off from SWIFT. If this bill sounds like a declaration of war, that?s because it is. Call it the American version of ?dialogue?. From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Feb 17 20:37:56 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:37:56 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "War Inc. Throws an Invasion Party and No One Shows Up", Pepe Escobar (Feb 16, 2022) Message-ID: Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach ? while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over. The Dem combo remote-controlling the senile President of the United States by earpiece/teleprompter was never accused of being the brightest bulbs in the room ? any room. That explains why one of their own, Nancy Pelosi, on ABC News, gave the whole Russian ?invasion? game away two ? or three ? days, depending on their math, before the ?canceled? non-event. First she said, ?If we were not threatening the sanctions and the rest, it would guarantee that Putin would invade.? And then the clincher: ?If Russia doesn?t invade, it?s not that he never intended to. It?s just that the sanctions worked.? Here, fully unveiled, is the whole Dem ?strategy?: a dubiously effective foreign policy ?victory? which will melt away months ahead of the inevitable debacle at the US midterms. Maria Zakharova, that female Slav counterpart of Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods in Ancient Greece, got closer to the truth while framing the psyops: ?February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired.? Add to it Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, unplugged, on ?information terrorism?: ?We have to learn from the tricks [our Western colleagues] pull.? Putin, once again, applied Sun Tzu to win without a battle: ?win? as in attending the objectives set for this round. But it gets dicier. The Duma, by 78%, voted to ask the President to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People?s Republics as ?separate, sovereign and independent? states. The final decision rests with Putin, who has already hinted what happens next. Even as he qualified ?what is happening now in Donbass? as ?a genocide? ? taking into context the previous eight years ? he pointed out how ?we must do everything to solve the problems of Donbass, but first of all, based on (?) the implementation of the Minsk agreements.? What this means is that Putin will give Kiev yet another ? final? ? chance to implement Minsk: the agreement ? enshrined as UN law ? that the Americans have been de facto sabotaging since 2015. Russia?s Security Council won?t be fooled, characterizing how ?the West is conducting a carefully planned information operation against Russia based on the concept of ?hybrid war?.? The Security Council also reaffirms that ?European countries will be responsible for very likely provocations against the DPR and LPR from Kiev.? This is Patrushev speaking, not a deer-caught-in-the-headlights Jake Sullivan. Neo-nazis on parade German Chancellor Scholz?s visit to Moscow was not exactly a Porsche negotiating Nurburgring. One never gets away spewing out platitudes in front of Putin. Scholz: ?For our generation, war in Europe is unimaginable?. Putin: ?One has already been unleashed by NATO against Belgrade.? After weeks of non-stop American hysteria cum war fever, it might be tempting to consider that Macron and Scholz could be on the same page with Putin, demanding that Kiev sit on the same table with Donetsk and Luhansk and work on the necessary constitutional amendments to grant them autonomy. That would be the only path towards a possible solution. Yet there?s no guarantee it will be taken, because of the immovable American veto. Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the Russian Federation Council, once again has stressed the only possible way Russia would ?intervene?: in the ?event of an invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the DPR and LPR, Russia?s response will be proportionate to the scale of aggression.? Even Scholz, timidly, has somehow agreed that like NATO in Yugoslavia, Russia in this case would have the right to invoke Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to save millions of Russian passport holders from the oligarchic Banderastan/neo-nazi shock troops of what Andrei Martyanov memorably described as country 404. These include the Azov Batallion ? which recruits neo-nazis from all across Europe ? sporting Wolfsangel arm patches straight from the SS, and is now incorporated in Ukraine?s National Guard. The vast, CIA/MI6 ?revitalized? stay-behind networks. And of course the in-progress $10 billion Eric Prince (Blackwater/Academi) scheme of setting up a private mercenary army via a partnership between the Lancaster 6 company and CIA-controlled Ukraine intel. The two crucial developments The serial American fake news/pysops/fog of war offensive did manage to obscure the two really crucial developments of the heady past few days. ? The de facto invasion of Russian territorial waters by a US Virginia-class sub, described as a ?completely unreasonable and incomprehensible activity? by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. ? Mr. Kinzhal?s recent flight to Kaliningrad onboard a Mach 3-capable MIG-31K ?Foxhound?. In case NATOstan clowns continue to entertain funny ideas, they could place a call to Mr. Khinzal. He?ll answer the call with hypersonic speed. Literally. Before the scheduled Russian non-invasion ?invasion? was canceled, Martyanov had deliciously outlined how the ?strategic ambivalence of Russia is terrifying for the US now because the US doesn?t know what will follow after the false flag, granted this false flag succeeds to dupe European poodles into utter submission.? Yes, it ain?t over till the fat transgender sings. A false flag, or flags, remain on the radar ? considering the tons of weapons showered on 404; over 150,000 troops massed right in front of the line of contact, equipped with absolutely lethal 120mm Grad rockets with warheads that when exploded, release thousands of sharp metal fragments; and the thousands of mercenaries trained by Polish, Brit and Blackwater/Academi instructors. What really happened in the Kuril islands, between Hokkaido and Kamchatka, diplomatically described by Shoigu, eventually landed on Russian media. The first explanation was that a Russian vessel might have launched warning torpedoes against the American sub. What happened was that the Virginia-class was detected by a Russian SSK or SSN, there was a sweep, and then the Marshal Shaposhnikov frigate used a sonar to intimate the uninvited guest to beat it. That was rather polite. In any other circumstances the Virginia-class would have been sunk. Of course this should be interpreted for what it is: one more graphic illustration that the ?indispensable nation? has lost its maritime invulnerability. Certainly to Russia. And sooner rather than later, also to China. And that is a direct consequence of the dire state of the US defense industry, Martyanov?s key area of study, and exemplified by the latest report by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). The full report is here. Take a look, for instance, at this table charting the emphasis on research in emerging technologies. Key areas such as space, hypersonics and cyber are down. In parallel, there?s an ?increase? in three interconnected areas: AI, fully networked C3 and microelectronics. This would suggest the same old American obsession, since Rumsfeld, with deploying in a ?smart battlefield?. The key takeaway may be the increase in biotechnology. Because that would point to a desperate Empire ? already outclassed by Russia and soon neutralized by China ? resorting to biowarfare. It?s no wonder the landmark February 4 Russia-China joint statement pointedly refers to the danger of US bioweapon labs. To the dustbin, Batman! Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach ? while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over. Washington and Brussels have been warned in no uncertain terms that if they entice their goons/mercenaries to attack Donbass, 404 will be smashed to smithereens. And that is only the easily dismissible part of the package: all NATOstan security systems will also go. Russia is waiting ? like an army of Taoist monks. After the canceled ?invasion?, it can even afford to enjoy some comic relief. The ?technical and military? responses are ready ? and once again: it?s their strategic ambiguity that is driving the Americans crazy. They are coming to realize they must negotiate indivisibility of security and missiles in Eastern Europe because no one in the Ukrainized Empire knows what Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov could do next. And then, there are the headless chickens. In the aftermath of the ?invasion? not showing up as scheduled, G-7 Foreign Ministers will have an ?emergency? meeting later his week in Germany to scratch their collective heads on why the invasion did not show up as scheduled. As it stands, in the calm before the next storm, let?s sit back, relax and remember February 16, 2022: the day when the latest, concerted, full spectrum fake news psyops ended up hurling NATOstan?s ?credibility? to a one-way trip to the dustbin of History. From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Feb 17 20:57:53 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 14:57:53 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "The U.S. Needs Cold War but the Real Enemy Is Within", Finian Cunningham (Feb. 17, 2022) Message-ID: <66F675AB-8646-478B-BBC9-9F47272D159F@newsfromneptune.com> https://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2022/02/17/the-us-needs-cold-war-but-real-enemy-is-within/ The U.S. Needs Cold War but the Real Enemy Is Within Finian Cunningham February 17, 2022 The U.S. has a date with destiny as it faces up to its own inherent failings and its very real enemy within ? the national security state. Georgy Arbatov, the witty Soviet diplomat, remarked for an American audience at the end of the Cold War: ?We are going to do a terrible thing to you. We are going to deprive you of an enemy.? His observation at the time seemed to be an oxymoron. Arbatov died in 2010 at the age of 87. But how true his words have proven nearly 30 years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union and what was presumed to be the end of the Cold War and America?s historic victory. As it turns out, there were no winners. The seasoned diplomat served as an advisor on U.S. relations to five Soviet leaders. He traveled to the United States frequently and was the U.S. media?s go-to Soviet spokesman. Arbatov knew intimately how the Cold War worked as an organizing principle for the edifice of U.S. society, politics, economics and military. He knew how and why the Soviet Union was cast as the ?evil empire? by the U.S. The portrayal had little to do with the Soviet Union objectively presenting a mortal threat. But the waging of a Cold War and forging a supposed Soviet nemesis to ?the American way of life? was a vital necessity for the operation of U.S. global power. The militarism was essential for the functioning of American capitalism and its vast taxpayer-funded Pentagon budgets every year. Having a Soviet enemy also provided the United States with an apparent purpose of ?defending the free world? and acting as a patron over European and NATO allies. In less benign terms, the relationship is seen more as one of hegemony and Washington?s dominance. A third vital reason for Cold War against the Soviet Union was the cover it gave to U.S. military adventures around the world. Under the guise of protecting the world from ?Godless Communism?, the Americans prosecuted imperialist wars and subterfuges that can otherwise be seen as criminal aggression and genocides. A fourth crucial benefit from having a supposed dastardly foreign enemy was the national unity it provided for American rulers. Citizens would rally around the flag and the mythology of ?American exceptionalism?. When the Soviet Union disappeared from the global map in 1991, incisive analysts like Georgy Arbatov discerned that it would also herald the demise of the United States. For a brief moment, there was euphoria from ?winning the Cold War?. President HW Bush declared a ?new world order? under American leadership. State Department scholars hailed the ?end of history? had arrived in the form of ?liberal democracy? and market capitalism. How fleeting do these celebrations seem now. The loss of a Soviet enemy also in a very real way spelled the end of the United States. So much of the modern U.S. state since World War II has been shaped by Cold War militarism. Without the cover of a Soviet bogeyman, the United States became visible for the imperialist monster that it is. The emperor was naked. No sooner had the Soviet Union dissolved than the United States embarked on a seeming non-stop rampage of wars across the globe. The relentless warmongering has been largely about finding a purpose for wielding U.S. power under a myriad of pretexts from ?defending human rights? to ?war on drugs?, from ?preventing weapons of mass destruction? to ?war on terrorism?, and so on. One baleful outcome of this degenerate conduct has been the corrosive effect on international law, the United Nations Charter and, ironically, the presumed moral authority of the U.S. The international standing of the U.S. has plummeted as the world comes to abhor its unilateral arrogance and tyrannical, pathological caprice. The avowed pretexts for military interventions were never sufficiently plausible despite having a global media machine (conceitedly called the ?free press?) to sell those pretexts to the public. Without a seemingly credible international mission ? fighting the evil Soviet empire ? the United States has lost the ability to cohere its own nation. The Wizard of Oz is an impotent charlatan. It is no coincidence that a mere 30 years after the supposed end of the Cold War, the U.S. is a cauldron of internal political chaos and seething enmity. Republicans and Democrats are riven by mutual contempt as one party accuses the other of treason and treachery. The U.S. military spending of over $700 billion a year appears as a grotesque and shameful obscenity. All the more so in the face of a plethora of neglected American social needs and infrastructure collapse. That is why the U.S. political class has needed to revive the Cold War as an absolute necessity. Without the Cold War, the United States is in mortal danger of collapsing from its own internal failures as a hyper-militarized national security state. This explains the madcap media propaganda campaign over recent weeks to stoke dangerous tensions in Europe with Russia. It explains, too, why the U.S. has continually slated China as a global adversary. And why the Pentagon has sought to portray a growing natural partnership between Moscow and Beijing as an alarming pernicious development that ?threatens Western democracy?. However, reviving the Cold War is a futile endeavor. The United States and its allies are not threatened by Russia or China in any objective way. Thus, the demonization of Russia and China ? while acting as a short-term cover for the United States and causing wanton geopolitical tensions even to the point of risking confrontation ? will in the end not suffice as a pretext. The U.S. has a date with destiny as it faces up to its own inherent failings and its very real enemy within ? the national security state. ### From brussel at illinois.edu Thu Feb 17 21:52:21 2022 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Thu, 17 Feb 2022 21:52:21 +0000 Subject: [Peace-discuss] [Peace] "War Inc. Throws an Invasion Party and No One Shows Up", Pepe Escobar (Feb 16, 2022) In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <4D9125CD-4F83-4186-BE09-6A6835E0872C@illinois.edu> Escobar is too sanguine. A key question remains. If an operation, false flag or not, by Ukrainian forces against the Donbass does not occur, and NATO/US/Ukraine does not respond to Russia?s requests/demands/redlines, what will the Russians do? If nothing, then Putin/Lavrov/Russia will seem frustrated, without alternatives. What could they do? I have no idea, but what I believe is that if there is no threat by Russia to the American heartland?somehow equivalent to what NATO/US has been doing to Russia?, then the American population will go on believing their leaders and its client media. This population has to be shaken out of its lethargy and ignorance, realizing that its ocean barriers are no longer sufficient to isolate it from world affairs. Fateful times? I?m feeling in this USA what an anti-Nazi must have felt in Nazi Germany before WWII. Propaganda is king, it was then, it is now here. > On Feb 17, 2022, at 2:37 PM, C. G. Estabrook via Peace wrote: > > > Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach ? while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over. > > The Dem combo remote-controlling the senile President of the United States by earpiece/teleprompter was never accused of being the brightest bulbs in the room ? any room. > > That explains why one of their own, Nancy Pelosi, on ABC News, gave the whole Russian ?invasion? game away two ? or three ? days, depending on their math, before the ?canceled? non-event. > > First she said, ?If we were not threatening the sanctions and the rest, it would guarantee that Putin would invade.? And then the clincher: > > ?If Russia doesn?t invade, it?s not that he never intended to. It?s just that the sanctions worked.? > > Here, fully unveiled, is the whole Dem ?strategy?: a dubiously effective foreign policy ?victory? which will melt away months ahead of the inevitable debacle at the US midterms. > > Maria Zakharova, that female Slav counterpart of Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods in Ancient Greece, got closer to the truth while framing the psyops: ?February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired.? > > Add to it Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, unplugged, on ?information terrorism?: ?We have to learn from the tricks [our Western colleagues] pull.? > > Putin, once again, applied Sun Tzu to win without a battle: ?win? as in attending the objectives set for this round. > > But it gets dicier. The Duma, by 78%, voted to ask the President to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People?s Republics as ?separate, sovereign and independent? states. > > The final decision rests with Putin, who has already hinted what happens next. Even as he qualified ?what is happening now in Donbass? as ?a genocide? ? taking into context the previous eight years ? he pointed out how ?we must do everything to solve the problems of Donbass, but first of all, based on (?) the implementation of the Minsk agreements.? > > What this means is that Putin will give Kiev yet another ? final? ? chance to implement Minsk: the agreement ? enshrined as UN law ? that the Americans have been de facto sabotaging since 2015. > > Russia?s Security Council won?t be fooled, characterizing how ?the West is conducting a carefully planned information operation against Russia based on the concept of ?hybrid war?.? The Security Council also reaffirms that ?European countries will be responsible for very likely provocations against the DPR and LPR from Kiev.? This is Patrushev speaking, not a deer-caught-in-the-headlights Jake Sullivan. > > Neo-nazis on parade > > German Chancellor Scholz?s visit to Moscow was not exactly a Porsche negotiating Nurburgring. One never gets away spewing out platitudes in front of Putin. Scholz: ?For our generation, war in Europe is unimaginable?. Putin: ?One has already been unleashed by NATO against Belgrade.? > > After weeks of non-stop American hysteria cum war fever, it might be tempting to consider that Macron and Scholz could be on the same page with Putin, demanding that Kiev sit on the same table with Donetsk and Luhansk and work on the necessary constitutional amendments to grant them autonomy. That would be the only path towards a possible solution. Yet there?s no guarantee it will be taken, because of the immovable American veto. > > Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the Russian Federation Council, once again has stressed the only possible way Russia would ?intervene?: in the ?event of an invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the DPR and LPR, Russia?s response will be proportionate to the scale of aggression.? > > Even Scholz, timidly, has somehow agreed that like NATO in Yugoslavia, Russia in this case would have the right to invoke Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to save millions of Russian passport holders from the oligarchic Banderastan/neo-nazi shock troops of what Andrei Martyanov memorably described as country 404. > > These include the Azov Batallion ? which recruits neo-nazis from all across Europe ? sporting Wolfsangel arm patches straight from the SS, and is now incorporated in Ukraine?s National Guard. The vast, CIA/MI6 ?revitalized? stay-behind networks. And of course the in-progress $10 billion Eric Prince (Blackwater/Academi) scheme of setting up a private mercenary army via a partnership between the Lancaster 6 company and CIA-controlled Ukraine intel. > > The two crucial developments > > The serial American fake news/pysops/fog of war offensive did manage to obscure the two really crucial developments of the heady past few days. > > ? The de facto invasion of Russian territorial waters by a US Virginia-class sub, described as a ?completely unreasonable and incomprehensible activity? by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. > ? Mr. Kinzhal?s recent flight to Kaliningrad onboard a Mach 3-capable MIG-31K ?Foxhound?. In case NATOstan clowns continue to entertain funny ideas, they could place a call to Mr. Khinzal. He?ll answer the call with hypersonic speed. Literally. > Before the scheduled Russian non-invasion ?invasion? was canceled, Martyanov had deliciously outlined how the ?strategic ambivalence of Russia is terrifying for the US now because the US doesn?t know what will follow after the false flag, granted this false flag succeeds to dupe European poodles into utter submission.? > > Yes, it ain?t over till the fat transgender sings. A false flag, or flags, remain on the radar ? considering the tons of weapons showered on 404; over 150,000 troops massed right in front of the line of contact, equipped with absolutely lethal 120mm Grad rockets with warheads that when exploded, release thousands of sharp metal fragments; and the thousands of mercenaries trained by Polish, Brit and Blackwater/Academi instructors. > > What really happened in the Kuril islands, between Hokkaido and Kamchatka, diplomatically described by Shoigu, eventually landed on Russian media. The first explanation was that a Russian vessel might have launched warning torpedoes against the American sub. > > What happened was that the Virginia-class was detected by a Russian SSK or SSN, there was a sweep, and then the Marshal Shaposhnikov frigate used a sonar to intimate the uninvited guest to beat it. That was rather polite. In any other circumstances the Virginia-class would have been sunk. > > Of course this should be interpreted for what it is: one more graphic illustration that the ?indispensable nation? has lost its maritime invulnerability. Certainly to Russia. And sooner rather than later, also to China. > > And that is a direct consequence of the dire state of the US defense industry, Martyanov?s key area of study, and exemplified by the latest report by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). > > The full report is here. Take a look, for instance, at this table charting the emphasis on research in emerging technologies. > > > > Key areas such as space, hypersonics and cyber are down. In parallel, there?s an ?increase? in three interconnected areas: AI, fully networked C3 and microelectronics. This would suggest the same old American obsession, since Rumsfeld, with deploying in a ?smart battlefield?. > > The key takeaway may be the increase in biotechnology. Because that would point to a desperate Empire ? already outclassed by Russia and soon neutralized by China ? resorting to biowarfare. It?s no wonder the landmark February 4 Russia-China joint statement pointedly refers to the danger of US bioweapon labs. > > To the dustbin, Batman! > > Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach ? while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over. Washington and Brussels have been warned in no uncertain terms that if they entice their goons/mercenaries to attack Donbass, 404 will be smashed to smithereens. And that is only the easily dismissible part of the package: all NATOstan security systems will also go. > > Russia is waiting ? like an army of Taoist monks. After the canceled ?invasion?, it can even afford to enjoy some comic relief. The ?technical and military? responses are ready ? and once again: it?s their strategic ambiguity that is driving the Americans crazy. They are coming to realize they must negotiate indivisibility of security and missiles in Eastern Europe because no one in the Ukrainized Empire knows what Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov could do next. > > And then, there are the headless chickens. In the aftermath of the ?invasion? not showing up as scheduled, G-7 Foreign Ministers will have an ?emergency? meeting later his week in Germany to scratch their collective heads on why the invasion did not show up as scheduled. > > As it stands, in the calm before the next storm, let?s sit back, relax and remember February 16, 2022: the day when the latest, concerted, full spectrum fake news psyops ended up hurling NATOstan?s ?credibility? to a one-way trip to the dustbin of History. > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace__;!!DZ3fjg!t7QzLTlxvdFsqwvYIzaUygdkMbOsiE7_AMIZU0GViXQEU1dt7xkzIvBA1m5U9P8$ From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Feb 18 23:47:42 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2022 17:47:42 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended videos for AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV Message-ID: <69b156ef-c9f6-513b-b1ff-118927314603@forestfield.org> Here are the videos I recommended to run during AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV. As a reminder: If anyone else has anything to run, please feel free to get your video pointers to UPTV (UPTV at urbanaillinois.us). I have continued to ask UPTV to prioritize AWARE members video pointers over mine for AWARE on the Air, Carl Estabrook & David Green's video pointers over mine for News from Neptune, and David Johnson's video pointers over mine for Labor's World View TV. Enjoy. -J News from Neptune & AWARE on the Air ================================================== MintPressNews https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=Bxv4hIuA2YU -- (1h 10m 28s) How the US Uses the NED to Export Obedience, with Matt Kennard https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=FDBX0HDkHss -- (8m 55s) Pfizer-Affiliated Fact Checker Fails, Promotes COVID Misinformation The Left Lens https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=e343cjQd2-w -- (22m 37s) Joe Biden Beats the Drums of War with Russia by MEDDLING in Ukraine https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=khzBvWGarU0 -- (1h 9m) Interview w/Danny Haiphong on Popular Voice Network talking American Exceptionalism Consortium News https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=J5FkvhF9CWU -- (1h 4m 36s) DISCUSSION: Assange Case & Supreme Court Appeal Decision - with Stella Moris & Kristinn Hrafnsson Labor's World View TV ================================================== More Perfect Union https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=SArg_sCqQYg -- (6m 2s) "Hershey Prison:" Workers EXPOSE Brutal Working Conditions At A Hershey Factory https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=N_YAi7Ls424 -- (4m 17s) Michigan Restaurant Workers Organizing To End The Subminimum Wage https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=8po2cea-9pc -- (6m 45s) Truckers Lead Historic Unionization Drive https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=RwKhE5GBSaQ -- (5m 27s) Coal Miners Tell Manchin To Pass Build Back Better https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=7C_4Uq_PFBM -- (4m 33s) How New Mexico Is Solving The Education Crisis: Paying Teachers More https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=1AyRtjBv8pg -- (5m 58s) Wisconsin Autoworkers Fight To Keep Jobs In State https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=Pnvj0Vj1Uac -- (4m 28s) Striking Concrete Workers Shut Down Seattle https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=MvDfigzy6fs -- (12m 16s) Stock Trades Are CORRUPTING Congress?s Decisions. We Have Proof. | The Class Room Rapid Response Network https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=a62aoH9RlmA -- (40s) 05/29/17 - Haiti Garment Strike Continues BreakThrough News https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=eQAWW76gu6w -- (13m 30s) Super Bowl Dancer Speaks Out: They Wanted Us to Work for Free, But We Refused World Socialist Web Site https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=Z9fZXNLb9rA -- (11m 19s) WSWS Interview with American Trotskyist Jim Lawrence (1938-2022) Democracy At Work https://vid.puffyan.us/watch?v=zo13VR9C2uI -- (10m 51s) Ask Prof Wolff: Finding Common Ground with Canadian Truckers RT https://youtube.com/watch?v=Jljk0_KPP7k -- (5m 39s) Starbucks Union Fights Rapidly Multiply From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sat Feb 19 00:01:18 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 18 Feb 2022 18:01:18 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?=22War_Inc=2E_Throws_an_Invasion_Party?= =?utf-8?q?_and_No_One_Shows_Up=2C=22_Pepe_Escobar_=E2=80=A2_Wednesday=2C_?= =?utf-8?q?Feb=2E_16=2C_2022?= References: <20220218202544.2B45B3C3A@ivan.mayfirst.org> Message-ID: <662F3966-D972-4F34-8308-2CEB103848A2@newsfromneptune.com> War Inc. Throws an Invasion Party and No One Shows Up Pepe Escobar ? Wednesday, February 16, 2022 Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach ? while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over. The Dem combo remote-controlling the senile President of the United States by earpiece/teleprompter was never accused of being the brightest bulbs in the room ? any room. That explains why one of their own, Nancy Pelosi, on ABC News, gave the whole Russian ?invasion? game away two ? or three ? days, depending on their math, before the ?canceled? non-event. First she said, ?If we were not threatening the sanctions and the rest, it would guarantee that Putin would invade.? And then the clincher: ?If Russia doesn?t invade, it?s not that he never intended to. It?s just that the sanctions worked.? Here, fully unveiled, is the whole Dem ?strategy?: a dubiously effective foreign policy ?victory? which will melt away months ahead of the inevitable debacle at the US midterms. Maria Zakharova, that female Slav counterpart of Hermes, the Messenger of the Gods in Ancient Greece, got closer to the truth while framing the psyops: ?February 15, 2022 will go down in history as the day Western war propaganda failed. Humiliated and destroyed without a single shot fired.? Add to it Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, unplugged, on ?information terrorism?: ?We have to learn from the tricks [our Western colleagues] pull.? Putin, once again, applied Sun Tzu to win without a battle: ?win? as in attending the objectives set for this round. But it gets dicier. The Duma, by 78%, voted to ask the President to recognize the Donetsk and Luhansk People?s Republics as ?separate, sovereign and independent? states. The final decision rests with Putin, who has already hinted what happens next. Even as he qualified ?what is happening now in Donbass? as ?a genocide? ? taking into context the previous eight years ? he pointed out how ?we must do everything to solve the problems of Donbass, but first of all, based on (?) the implementation of the Minsk agreements.? What this means is that Putin will give Kiev yet another ? final? ? chance to implement Minsk: the agreement ? enshrined as UN law ? that the Americans have been de facto sabotaging since 2015. Russia?s Security Council won?t be fooled, characterizing how ?the West is conducting a carefully planned information operation against Russia based on the concept of ?hybrid war?.? The Security Council also reaffirms that ?European countries will be responsible for very likely provocations against the DPR and LPR from Kiev.? This is Patrushev speaking, not a deer-caught-in-the-headlights Jake Sullivan. Neo-nazis on parade German Chancellor Scholz?s visit to Moscow was not exactly a Porsche negotiating Nurburgring. One never gets away spewing out platitudes in front of Putin. Scholz: ?For our generation, war in Europe is unimaginable?. Putin: ?One has already been unleashed by NATO against Belgrade.? After weeks of non-stop American hysteria cum war fever, it might be tempting to consider that Macron and Scholz could be on the same page with Putin, demanding that Kiev sit on the same table with Donetsk and Luhansk and work on the necessary constitutional amendments to grant them autonomy. That would be the only path towards a possible solution. Yet there?s no guarantee it will be taken, because of the immovable American veto. Valentina Matvienko, the speaker of the Russian Federation Council, once again has stressed the only possible way Russia would ?intervene?: in the ?event of an invasion of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the DPR and LPR, Russia?s response will be proportionate to the scale of aggression.? Even Scholz, timidly, has somehow agreed that like NATO in Yugoslavia, Russia in this case would have the right to invoke Responsibility to Protect (R2P) to save millions of Russian passport holders from the oligarchic Banderastan/neo-nazi shock troops of what Andrei Martyanov memorably described as country 404. These include the Azov Batallion ? which recruits neo-nazis from all across Europe ? sporting Wolfsangel arm patches straight from the SS, and is now incorporated in Ukraine?s National Guard. The vast, CIA/MI6 ?revitalized? stay-behind networks. And of course the in-progress \$10 billion Eric Prince (Blackwater/Academi) scheme of setting up a private mercenary army via a partnership between the Lancaster 6 company and CIA-controlled Ukraine intel. The two crucial developments The serial American fake news/pysops/fog of war offensive did manage to obscure the two really crucial developments of the heady past few days. ? The de facto invasion of Russian territorial waters by a US Virginia-class sub, described as a ?completely unreasonable and incomprehensible activity? by Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu. ? Mr. Kinzhal?s recent flight to Kaliningrad onboard a Mach 3-capable MIG-31K ?Foxhound?. In case NATOstan clowns continue to entertain funny ideas, they could place a call to Mr. Khinzal. He?ll answer the call with hypersonic speed. Literally. Before the scheduled Russian non-invasion ?invasion? was canceled, Martyanov had deliciously outlined how the ?strategic ambivalence of Russia is terrifying for the US now because the US doesn?t know what will follow after the false flag, granted this false flag succeeds to dupe European poodles into utter submission.? Yes, it ain?t over till the fat transgender sings. A false flag, or flags, remain on the radar ? considering the tons of weapons showered on 404; over 150,000 troops massed right in front of the line of contact, equipped with absolutely lethal 120mm Grad rockets with warheads that when exploded, release thousands of sharp metal fragments; and the thousands of mercenaries trained by Polish, Brit and Blackwater/Academi instructors. What really happened in the Kuril islands, between Hokkaido and Kamchatka, diplomatically described by Shoigu, eventually landed on Russian media. The first explanation was that a Russian vessel might have launched warning torpedoes against the American sub. What happened was that the Virginia-class was detected by a Russian SSK or SSN, there was a sweep, and then the Marshal Shaposhnikov frigate used a sonar to intimate the uninvited guest to beat it. That was rather polite. In any other circumstances the Virginia-class would have been sunk. Of course this should be interpreted for what it is: one more graphic illustration that the ?indispensable nation? has lost its maritime invulnerability. Certainly to Russia. And sooner rather than later, also to China. And that is a direct consequence of the dire state of the US defense industry, Martyanov?s key area of study, and exemplified by the latest report by the National Defense Industrial Association (NDIA). The full report is here. Take a look, for instance, at this table charting the emphasis on research in emerging technologies. Key areas such as space, hypersonics and cyber are down. In parallel, there?s an ?increase? in three interconnected areas: AI, fully networked C3 and microelectronics. This would suggest the same old American obsession, since Rumsfeld, with deploying in a ?smart battlefield?. The key takeaway may be the increase in biotechnology. Because that would point to a desperate Empire ? already outclassed by Russia and soon neutralized by China ? resorting to biowarfare. It?s no wonder the landmark February 4 Russia-China joint statement pointedly refers to the danger of US bioweapon labs. To the dustbin, Batman! Moscow has not deviated for a moment from its Sun Tzu approach ? while detailing all demands and all red lines many times over. Washington and Brussels have been warned in no uncertain terms that if they entice their goons/mercenaries to attack Donbass, 404 will be smashed to smithereens. And that is only the easily dismissible part of the package: all NATOstan security systems will also go. Russia is waiting ? like an army of Taoist monks. After the canceled ?invasion?, it can even afford to enjoy some comic relief. The ?technical and military? responses are ready ? and once again: it?s their strategic ambiguity that is driving the Americans crazy. They are coming to realize they must negotiate indivisibility of security and missiles in Eastern Europe because no one in the Ukrainized Empire knows what Putin, Shoigu and Gerasimov could do next. And then, there are the headless chickens. In the aftermath of the ?invasion? not showing up as scheduled, G-7 Foreign Ministers will have an ?emergency? meeting later his week in Germany to scratch their collective heads on why the invasion did not show up as scheduled. As it stands, in the calm before the next storm, let?s sit back, relax and remember February 16, 2022: the day when the latest, concerted, full spectrum fake news psyops ended up hurling NATOstan?s ?credibility? to a one-way trip to the dustbin of History. ### -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: eJwdzEEKgzAQQNHTNMswM8mYuMhCC94jTmJbaKJEpdDTVwof_u6lkGYkI-oVCOgKPTIAg0bNnZnG_o4wdAPSRDcL5aHP-tWyFvUMiZ2z4ljYSG97t3iU5CIQ-2uJVAmGvENDVrUgsb0voebPvrS11LwdZ81_6ghb3mWdY_sBgqEpQQ.gif Type: image/gif Size: 43 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Sun Feb 20 22:47:50 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sun, 20 Feb 2022 16:47:50 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Russiagate continues: Discovery's "Secrets of the Salisbury Poisonings" echoes government narrative Message-ID: <2e596ec2-fe74-32f0-f695-58c21335a11a@forestfield.org> Discovery TV's "Secrets of the Salisbury Poisonings" ("Secrets") echoes the UK/US government narrative that the Salisbury poisonings of 4 March 2018 in Salisbury, Wiltshire, UK were the Russian government carrying out a revenge attack on Sergei Skripal via what the UK government insisted was one of the Novichok nerve agents. On 4 March 2018, Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia were found slumped over on a city park bench. Det. Sgt. Nick Bailey from the Wilts Police (local police) was called in to investigate. Bailey found the Skripals slumped over, got the Skripals medical attention, and Bailey was also made ill with whatever substance had adversely affected the Skripals. "Secrets" said that local firefighters were also brought in on the scene at the park bench and says that these firefighters donned hazmat suits to clean up the vomit on the scene (presumably the Skripals' vomit). "Secrets" never identifies how anyone knew to put on hazmat suits for cleaning up vomit. "Secrets" interviewed Rebecca Hudson, a local reporter working for a local paper that generally printed feel-good stories but also covered the Skripal case. She also said "One of the police officers said, 'You might want to stay because something interesting is going to happen.'". How would anyone know this? "Secrets" doesn't interview people who are the closest to the situation and not in a position to echo the government line, such as Yulia & Sergei Skripal. Both are recovered and out of the hospital by the time this show was made in 2021. We only see the Skripals in still images or footage made by others. A second poisoning incident also in Salisbury killed Dawn Sturgess (whom RT once claimed had been getting over a drug addiction) and Charlie Rowley who survived. Charlie Rowley is interviewed but mainly about the guilt he carries feeling that he inadvertently poisoned his girlfriend Dawn Sturgess. This means that the only interview subjects in "Secrets" are in two categories: 1. People who know too little to say anything that would seriously challenge the state narrative (like Viktoria Skripal, a relative of Yulia & Sergei Skripal and Ebru Ozturk, a shopkeeper of a shop where Sergei Skripal shopped) and uncredited people who speak as if they just happened to be on the scene at that time. 2. People who have a connection to the UK government -- local police, a NATO worker, UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd, Head of UK Counter Terrorism Policing Mark Rowley, etc. -- who repeat the government narrative and don't raise challenging questions. Here are some of the questions that should have been raised but would never be raised because "Secrets" is first and foremost establishment propaganda furthering the (apparently ongoing) Russiagate narrative: - How was it that a government nurse and her daughter (also training to be a nurse) just happened to be on the scene at the time the Skripals fell ill? Why aren't we told about this nurse and her daughter? - We're told right from the start of and throughout "Secrets" that a small amount of Novichok will kill people. But here we have 4 out of 5 people who allegedly came into contact with a Novichok substance (per the evidenceless UK government claim) who lived. Dawn Sturgess died, but for all we know, she died because her body had already been weakened by other means (perhaps the drug addiction RT once claimed she had). - Who owns Sergei Skripal's house and everything in it? Last reported was that the UK government bought that house and all its contents. Why? - What proof does the UK government have to back its repeated claim that the substance involved in these poisonings is one of the Novichok nerve agents? - The alleged substance involved reportedly requires a chemical lab to make, one can't make a batch at home. We're told that the powder form of the alleged substance used loses potency quickly when exposed to air, and Salisbury is 8 miles from such a lab -- Porton Down. We're told that the Porton Down workers are experts in chemical warfare. But to dismiss any suspicion we're also told that it's just "a quirk of fate" (30m 31s) that Porton Down has the means to make Novichok substances, houses other lethal substances, and the expertise to carry out making Novichok substances. Was the nearby lab used to make some substance used against the victims (keeping in mind that we don't have any evidence but UK government word that Novichok is genuinely involved here at all)? - Establishment media (such as "Secrets" and Wikipedia's entry on this case) call the substance a "Soviet-era nerve agent" but RT has shown us documents indicating that it's no secret how to make this and other Novichok-class substances. The information was published many years ago worldwide. Who benefits from repeatedly tying the substance involved to Russia? Why did "Secrets" not tell viewers that the Novichok nerve agents are a) a class of substances and b) published? In fact, "Secrets" claimed that "we knew that only Russia possessed that kind of capability" (28m 2s) but that was not true. "Secrets" later admits that the British government can also make Novichok substances. - Why wasn't Seymour (Sy) Hersh questioned about what he knows about this case? He gave an interview to The Independent (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/seymour-hersh-interview-novichok-russian-hacking-9-11-nerve-agent-attack-a8459596.html) and RT (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJgTiP6WBss) where Hersh said: From https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/seymour-hersh-interview-novichok-russian-hacking-9-11-nerve-agent-attack-a8459596.html > Sy Hersh: The story of novichok poisoning has not held up very well. He [Skripal] > was most likely talking to British intelligence services about Russian organised > crime. From https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yJgTiP6WBss regarding the two Russian men famously interviewed on RT which establishment media outlets have tried to raise suspicion on (without clear evidence): > Sy Hersh: Those two [the two men interviewed on RT] were helping the British > intelligence services with information about the Russian mafia. That's what they > were doing here [in the UK]. In other words, the people that were high on the > list of people who would want to hurt him [Sergey Skripal] would be the Russian > mafia. Russians, but not the Russian government. > > Afshin Rattansi, RT host: Do you mean the Skripals? > > Sy Hersh: Yeah, I mean that was the understanding. There was also some reporting > out of Europe about that that's been pretty much widespread. [...] - Who benefits from conflating the difference between some Russians doing something and the Russian government doing that thing? It seems clear to me that "Secrets" is not a good review of what we can learn about these poisonings, "Secrets" is overwhelmingly in line with government narrative, and "Secrets" is another beat of the drum aimed at preserving the Russiagate narrative where we should all fear and blame Russian government operatives for so many ills that befall westerners. But for those that paid some attention to these cases as they happened, there's quite a bit missing from "Secrets" which calls the entire show into question. From carl at newsfromneptune.com Wed Feb 23 11:45:15 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2022 05:45:15 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Bob Dylan, Masters of War, and the Ukraine Crisis Message-ID: <8B4B5822-AE24-4991-BDA6-15FDEAB032C8@newsfromneptune.com> Bob Dylan, Masters of War, and the Ukraine Crisis https://portside.org/2022-02-22/bob-dylan-masters-war-and-ukraine-crisis From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Feb 26 02:29:17 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 25 Feb 2022 20:29:17 -0600 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recommended videos for AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV Message-ID: Here are the videos I recommended to run during AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV. As a reminder: If anyone else has anything to run, please feel free to get your video pointers to UPTV (UPTV at urbanaillinois.us). I have continued to ask UPTV to prioritize AWARE members video pointers over mine for AWARE on the Air, Carl Estabrook & David Green's video pointers over mine for News from Neptune, and David Johnson's video pointers over mine for Labor's World View TV. Enjoy. -J News from Neptune & AWARE on the Air ================================================== The Socialist Program with Brian Becker courtesy of BreakThrough News https://youtube.com/watch?v=5PdmdMT1FAc -- (6m 13s) Roots of the Ukraine Crisis https://youtube.com/watch?v=I7sGea46FUE -- (48m 4s) U.S. Capitalism Born in Blood: From the First Thanksgiving to Today w/ Dr. Gerald Horne https://youtube.com/watch?v=LNIFxhbKLQE -- (1h 9m 24s) Fascism in the USA and Strategies to Fight It RT https://youtube.com/watch?v=CZzh1c5e2fY -- (4m 16s) US Secret Intelligence on Russian Invasion: Another Pretext for War? [A review of US lies leading to war] https://youtube.com/watch?v=SRmDnhPK7hg -- (4m 6s) Atlantic Council relies on 'feelings' to predict 'Russian invasion' https://youtube.com/watch?v=lWXRquT_-sc -- (26m 25s) Oppenheimer & the bomb culture Empire Files https://youtube.com/watch?v=rUR2JBbH4Nw -- (5m 36s) Israel Gets Georgia to Strip Free Speech Rights (Again) Glenn Greenwald https://youtube.com/watch?v=mt9kcNPY-kQ -- (38m 17s) Banishment from the Financial System - the War on Dissent https://rumble.com/vvrd3t-the-war-in-ukraine.html -- (1h 29m) LIVE - The War in Ukraine Behind the News courtesy of MintPressNews https://youtube.com/watch?v=FDBX0HDkHss -- (8m 54s) Pfizer-Affiliated Fact Checker Fails, Promotes COVID Misinformation Primo Radical https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rpo-g3Mlc2M -- (29m 48s) SATURDAY - Nationwide Protest Against War with Russia (this event already took place but the anti-war activism is the key point of showing this) Labor's World View TV ================================================== RT https://youtube.com/watch?v=MsED0ehK3jY -- (6m 24s) Canadian police crack down on the Freedom Convoy, though protest shows no sign of ending University of Birmingham https://youtube.com/watch?v=K0t50D4lQrs -- (1h 17m 17s) David Graeber - Debt, service, and the origins of capitalism Glenn Greenwald https://youtube.com/watch?v=mt9kcNPY-kQ -- (38m 17s) Banishment from the Financial System - the War on Dissent From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Sat Feb 26 20:28:13 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Sat, 26 Feb 2022 15:28:13 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Today's Daily Double: Name a country whose capital has been bombed In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Feel free to "steal" this idea and promote it as your own. "Can you patent the Sun?" https://twitter.com/naiman/status/1497665955572375559 [image: image.png] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 84348 bytes Desc: not available URL: