From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Sep 1 23:45:57 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 1 Sep 2023 18:45:57 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Articles, videos, and interviews of interest from interesting people Message-ID: <926b7fba-2b30-4015-8c31-7fa074a23063@forestfield.org> John Mearsheimer https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-bottom-line/2023/7/13/why-ukraine-wont-be-joining-nato-anytime-soon https://rumble.com/v2x7via-system-update-show-109.html (French) https://mearsheimer.substack.com/api/v1/file/f197869a-ea31-465b-8b99-eca9f544848d.pdf Mearsheimer will post the English version of the French article to https://mearsheimer.substack.com/p/le-monde-diplomatique-article-and when that is ready. BRICS talk CGTV https://youtube.com/watch?v=a9dFES6fX54 -- The Point: What's the point of BRICS? Recent Sputnik articles by Pepe Escobar https://sputnikglobe.com/20230831/pepe-escobar-does-brics-need-its-own-currency-1113013286.html https://sputnikglobe.com/20230825/pepe-escobar-brics-11---strategic-tour-de-force-1112882830.html Pepe Escobar's Sputnik articles https://sputnikglobe.com/author_pepe_escobar/ Funding Ukraine war while Americans die and lose their homes How Much Do Mercenaries Make in Ukraine? https://sputnikglobe.com/20230901/how-much-do-mercenaries-earn-in-ukraine-1113054978.html > The Russian military has reported a major uptick in Ukraine?s recruitment of > foreign mercenaries. Estimates on just how much these ?soldiers of fortune? get > paid vary wildly, from less than $1,000 a month to $2,000 per day. Sputnik did a > little digging and spoke to a pair of veteran military experts to try to get to > the bottom of things. It's highly likely that we're paying for this; Illinois' own Tammy Duckworth is currently busy holding up aid for Americans in need (including victims of the recent Maui fires and Florida flooding) contingent on more spending for Ukraine. This is being covered in https://rumble.com/v3dyflm-system-update-show-141.html live as I write this. The Duran https://rumble.com/v3dww1c-the-us-bankrupting-itself-on-wars-w-ron-paul-alexander-mercouris-and-glenn-.html -- The US Bankrupting Itself on Wars -w/ Ron Paul, Alexander Mercouris & Glenn Diesen https://rumble.com/v3bhc5c-us-policy-slowing-down-chinas-economy-w-jeffrey-sachs-live.html -- US policy slowing down China's economy w/ Jeffrey Sachs (Live) Glenn Greenwald https://rumble.com/v3dyflm-system-update-show-141.html -- LIVE - Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) Lets Americans Drown and Burn Unless Ukraine Gets More Money, Plus: Leading Establishment Critic Jeffrey Sachs on Ukraine, Taiwan, BRICS, and more | SYSTEM UPDATE #141 -J From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Sep 9 04:51:03 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 8 Sep 2023 23:51:03 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] "Peace, War and 9/11" documentary released online tonight Message-ID: <89740cca-55c9-4c61-8708-b5300fb9808d@forestfield.org> This movie came out tonight on Redacted News -- https://rumble.com/c/Redacted > Redacted is proud to present ?Peace, War and 9/11.? In this captivating > documentary filmed six months before his passing, eminent scholar and lifelong > peace activist Graeme MacQueen shares his final words on 9/11, the 2001 anthrax > attacks, and the goal of abolishing war. > > ?Peace, War and 9/11? is a production of the International Center for 9/11 Justice > (https://IC911.org). It is directed by Ted Walter and Richard Heap. Executive > producers are Ted Walter and Marilyn Langlois. It is distributed by Questar > Entertainment/Hipstr. > > Come to the New York premiere on Sunday, September 10, 2023, at 6:00 PM Eastern at > Cinema Village, 22 East 12th Street, New York, NY 10003. More info and tickets at: > https://www.eventbrite.com/e/nyc-premiere-of-peace-war-and-911-tickets-699899808167 Movie (starts 35:09 into this video) https://rumble.com/v3fi13v-redacted-presents-peace-war-and-911.html Trailer https://rumble.com/v3eq7v5-peace-war-trailer.html Related: Kim Iversen: The Shocking Masterminds Behind 9/11 | A Conversation with Kevin Ryan https://rumble.com/v3g3mlr-september-8-2023.html Kevin Ryan is on the board of the International Center for 9/11 Justice, is the Editor of the Journal of 9/11 Studies and the author of ?Another Nineteen: Investigating Legitimate 9/11 Suspects?. You can read the latest version of the book here: https://ic911.org/ 9/11 Documentaries https://ic911.org/films-and-videos/documentaries/ -J From jbn at forestfield.org Tue Sep 12 02:25:18 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Mon, 11 Sep 2023 21:25:18 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Cornel West killed his nascent POTUS campaign with one hiring: Peter Daou Message-ID: <743de2eb-5d6a-4ba6-ac1f-308ac3c4e69f@forestfield.org> I was discussing Dr. Cornel West's POTUS campaign with a friend around the time of Jimmy Dore's recent interview with West: Cornel West Does 45 Minute Commercial FOR JOE BIDEN! https://rumble.com/v3fjp1m-cornel-west-does-45-minute-commercial-for-joe-biden.html Cornel West Running On Trump Derangement Syndrome & White Supremacy https://rumble.com/v3fjpyv-cornel-west-running-on-trump-derangement-syndrome-and-white-supremacy.html Cop City Protesters Indicted Using SAME RICO Statute They Used Against Trump! https://rumble.com/v3fjrwv-cop-city-protesters-indicted-using-same-rico-statute-they-used-against-trum.html Cornel West DISMISSES Harm Done By Covid Lockdowns & Vaccine Mandates! https://rumble.com/v3fjtan-cornel-west-dismisses-harm-done-by-covid-lockdowns-and-vaccine-mandates.html Jimmy Dore Reacts To Cornel West Interview https://rumble.com/v3fjw3d-jimmy-dore-reacts-to-cornel-west-interview.html Jimmy Dore ADDRESSES Questions About Cornel West Interview https://rumble.com/v3g44zn-jimmy-dore-addresses-questions-about-cornel-west-interview.html Based on the above, I wrote: > Fortunately we're still a year away but there's much work to be done. By this > point, I basically don't trust the Greens to get the work done because I could be > convinced that the Greens are either too disorganized to ever become effective or > there are pro-DNC moles working in the Greens which means the Greens are a sham to > begin with (and their disorganization is merely icing on the cake of making sure > the Greens don't put up anyone who can effectively challenge the DNC > corporation). And now, based on West's most recent hiring, I added the following: It's official: The Dr. Cornel West campaign hired Peter Daou to manage his campaign. See https://twitter.com/CornelWest/status/1701045524713840690 for the announcement or see the attached. Jimmy Dore covered this hiring as his first topic on tonight's show and Dore clearly explained what Daou's hiring means in the context of Dore's interview above and Daou's own history in politics working with powerful players. Peter Daou is a former Hillary Clinton adviser who smeared anyone with sexist/racist diversions if they criticized Mrs. Clinton, her record in office, or her policy choices. That Daou gets good reviews from the New York Times should also raise a red flag for anyone who cares about peace and good governance. Daou also has an ugly history working with the Israel government. Peter Daou is a Democrat. That speaks directly to what I wrote above that the Greens would allow Dr. West to bring a Democrat into the campaign at all. No serious opposition to the Democrats has business hiring Democrats to manage anything. I remember when the Greens ran a "safe state" campaign years ago, when the Greens put up a Russiagater (Howie Hawkins) as POTUS candidate, and this decision won't be forgotten. The Greens are indistinguishable from being controlled opposition for the Democrats. I think that there's literally years of evidence for this view and I realize that this declaration is hardly news to many of you. Ron Placone asked in https://twitter.com/RonPlacone/status/1701253884579299365 > I support Cornel West. I am not enthused by the decision to bring Peter Daou into > the fold. Honest question, and I?m being sincere: Has any campaign Peter Daou > helped as of recent gone on to recommend him? This is quite kind to Cornel West; perhaps too kind. West seems to be seeking some kind of benefit that (he believes, I guess) the Democrats can provide. That explains why West gave such shitty answers to Jimmy Dore's questions in that most recent interview. Jimmy Dore led tonight's show with a response to West's language in that interview. I'm sure this response from tonight will be posted tomorrow. I think more in line with Compton Jay from the Revolutionary Blackout Network who said in https://twitter.com/ComptonMadeMe/status/1701080163751198938 > How the hell do you go from the incredible Jill Stein @DrJillStein to the > nonsense of one of the most hated smear merchants of the Left in Peter "Conman" > Daou @cornelwest Excellent question, and I'm surprised anyone associated with West's campaign hasn't distanced themselves from this entire campaign -- Jill Stein, Chris Hedges, and some others. Jimmy Dore said multiple times that he wanted to talk to West about what West was saying in the media but the West campaign wouldn't let them discuss this privately. Then the on-air interview happened and West showed that he's a milquetoast Democrat running with the false-opposition Greens to say things that are indistinguishable from being an ad for Joe Biden. West got a lot of credit for being different because he was in one of the Matrix movies, said vaguely challenging things about race, calls everyone "brother" and "sister" and doesn't even give harshly critical language for anyone but Trump (not even Biden receives harsh language from West!). So, credit where credit is due: Jimmy Dore found out (and called out) Cornel West's infiltrator latest hire in real-time as West was responding to questions. I was never 'in' West's camp, but if I were this hiring choice would have told me all I needed to know to not support the Greens, West's POTUS campaign, or looking at the Green corporation as anything but a false front for the Democrats. -J -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: media_F5tTlkdWEAANnXV.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 622482 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Wed Sep 13 00:06:37 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Tue, 12 Sep 2023 19:06:37 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Cornel West killed his nascent POTUS campaign with one hiring: Peter Daou In-Reply-To: <743de2eb-5d6a-4ba6-ac1f-308ac3c4e69f@forestfield.org> References: <743de2eb-5d6a-4ba6-ac1f-308ac3c4e69f@forestfield.org> Message-ID: I wrote: > [...] West seems to be seeking some kind of benefit that (he believes, I guess) > the Democrats can provide. That explains why West gave such shitty answers to > Jimmy Dore's questions in that most recent interview. Jimmy Dore led tonight's > show with a response to West's language in that interview. I'm sure this response > from tonight will be posted tomorrow. That segment has been posted as https://rumble.com/v3gzs4e-heres-why-cornel-west-got-so-upset-at-jimmy-dore.html I recommend watching it and seeing/hearing the multiple objections to Dr. West's unserious campaign to become POTUS. From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Sep 15 04:02:40 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 14 Sep 2023 23:02:40 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Pepe Escobar interviews with Danny Haiphong Message-ID: Pepe Escobar: BRICS Summit DESTROYS Neocons as New Currency and Expansion Top Agenda https://youtube.com/watch?v=mpYmjPxUAGE Pepe Escobar: Russia-China-North Korea Alliance DESTROYS the Neocons, Signals Demise of the West https://youtube.com/watch?v=MsNxIB0Wd7Y These interviews and many others are on the Danny Haiphong YouTube page https://youtube.com/channel/UCOxLhz6B_elvLflntSEfnzA . I can only imagine that it's just a matter of time until Haiphong gets a Rumble channel because he is censored off of YouTube. From jbn at forestfield.org Mon Sep 18 00:49:55 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sun, 17 Sep 2023 19:49:55 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Videos I recommend watching Message-ID: Hollywood?s Propaganda Factory RT Documentary https://rumble.com/v3gqcqr-hollywoods-propaganda-factory-rt-documentary.html This is a highly interesting piece covering modern US government and Hollywood WWII propaganda including: - contemporary lies the White House is telling the world about who won World War II ("...America and Great Britain had victory over the Nazis") with no mention of the USSR[1]. The euphemistically named US Dept. of Defense website[2] says: "The conflict began in 1939, when Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland", "...U.S. forces participated in the celebrations in France, a nation that had borne much of the brunt of the fighting", and "...those liberated in the East would be occupied for decades by Soviet forces". [1] https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse45/status/1258842411524132865 [2] https://www.defense.gov/Multimedia/Experience/VE-Day/ - what Americans were shown in 1943's "Mission to Moscow" featuring depictions of Russians you couldn't show today for American propaganda to get Americans into the war. The ad for the movie is online at https://archive.org/details/MissionToMoscowTrailer - "The North Star" (https://archive.org/details/TheNorthStarVideoQualityUpgrade has a good copy) - Life magazine cover articles praising Stalin and the USSR. The Duran https://rumble.com/v3i6luo-us-efforts-to-strangle-china-and-reassert-hegemony-jeffrey-sachs-alexander-.html -- The Duran interviews Jeffrey Sachs https://rumble.com/v3hxa22-collective-west-refuses-to-admit-ukraine-offensive-has-failed.html -- "Collective west refuses to admit Ukraine offensive has failed" discussion From cgestabrook at gmail.com Wed Sep 20 01:13:55 2023 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C G Estabrook) Date: Tue, 19 Sep 2023 20:13:55 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] On The Idiotic Notion That It's Brave To Support Nuclear Brinkmanship In Ukraine Message-ID: <5CB81DAF-6048-449D-8DB8-EAFCBC74F85C@gmail.com> https://open.substack.com/pub/caitlinjohnstone/p/on-the-idiotic-notion-that-its-brave From jbn at forestfield.org Wed Sep 20 23:16:09 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2023 18:16:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Pepe Escobar: Russia, North Korea Stage 'Strategic Coup' Against Western Hegemony Message-ID: <86a15b73-cc92-441d-89af-dc03cd58499d@forestfield.org> https://sputnikglobe.com/20230919/pepe-escobar-russia-north-korea-stage-strategic-coup-against-western-hegemony-1113489011.html is Pepe Escobar's latest for Sputnik. > It will take ages to unpack the silos of information inbuilt in the Eastern > Economic Forum in Vladivostok last week, coupled with the ? armored - > train-keeps-a-rollin? conducted by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un straddling > every nook and cranny of Primorsky Krai. > > The key themes all reflect the four main vectors of the New Great Game as it?s > being played across the Global South: energy and energy resources; manufacturing > and labor; market and trade rules; and logistics. But they go way beyond ? > exploring the subtle nuances of the current civilizational war. > > So Vladivostok presented? > > - A serious debate on the surge of anti-neocolonialism, presented for instance by > the Myanmar delegation; geostrategically, Burma/Myanmar, as a privileged gateway > to Southeast Asia and the Indian Ocean, was always an object of Divide and Rule > games, with the British Empire only caring about extracting natural resources. > This is what ?scientific colonialism? is all about. > > - A serious debate on the concept of the civilization-state, as already developed > by Chinese and Russian scholars, applied to China, Russia, India and Iran. > > - The interconnection of transport/connectivity corridors. That includes the > upgrading of the Trans-Siberian in the near future; a boost for the Trans-Baikal ? > the world?s busiest rail line ? connecting the Urals to the Far East; a renewed > drive for the Northern Sea Route (last month two Russian oil tankers sailed from > Murmansk across the Arctic to China for the first time; ten days shorter than the > Suez Canal route); and the coming of the Chennai-Vladivostok channel, which will > be connected to the International North South Transportation Corridor (INTSC). > > - The common Eurasia payment system, discussed in detail in one of the key panels[1]: > Greater Eurasia: Drivers for the Formation of an Alternative International and > Monetary and Financial System. The immense challenge to set up a new payment > settlement currency against ?toxic currencies? instrumentalized amid relentless > Hybrid War. In another panel, the possibility of a timely BRICS and EAEU joint > summit next year has been evoked. > > All Aboard The Kim Train > > The genesis of Kim Jong Un?s train journey to the Russian Far East - coinciding > with the Forum, no less - is a masterful strategic coup that was in the works > since 2014, at the time of the Maidan. > > Xi Jinping was still in the beginning of his first mandate; he had announced the > New Silk Road exactly ten years ago, first in Astana and then in Jakarta. The DPRK > was not supposed to be integrated into this vast pan-Eurasian project that would > soon become China?s overarching foreign policy concept. > > The DPRK[2] then was on a roll against the Hegemon, under Obama, and Beijing was no > more than a worried spectator. Moscow, of course, was always focused on peace in > the Korean Peninsula, especially because its geopolitical priorities in 2014 were > Donbass and Syria/Iran. The last thing Moscow could afford was a war in > Asia-Pacific. > > Putin?s strategy was to send Defense Minister Shoigu to Beijing and Islamabad to > calm it all down. Pakistan at the time was helping Pyongyang to weaponize their > nuclear arsenal. Simultaneously, Putin himself approached Kim, offering serious > guarantees: we?ve got your back if ever there is an attack by the Hegemon > supported by Seoul. Even better: Putin got Xi himself to double down on the > guarantees. > > The categorical imperative was simple: as long as Pyongyang did not start any > trouble, Moscow and Beijing would be by its side. > > A sort of calm before any possible storm then set in ? even if Pyongyang continued > to test their missiles. So over the years, Kim?s mindset changed; he became > convinced that Russia and China were his allies. > > The DPRK's geoeconomic integration into Eurasia was seriously discussed in > previous, pre-Covid editions of the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok. That > included the tantalizing possibility of a Trans-Korean Railway linking both North > and South to the Far East, Siberia and the wider Eurasia. > > So Kim started to see the Big Eurasia Picture, and how Pyongyang could finally > start to benefit geoeconomically from a closer association with the EAEU, SCO and > BRI. This is how strategic diplomacy works: you invest during a decade, and then > all the pieces fall into place when an armored train keeps-a-rollin? across > Primorsky Krai. > > From the perspective of a Russia-China-DPRK triangle, it?s no wonder the > collective West has been reduced to the status of crying toddlers in a sandbox. > The Hegemon?s puny US-Japan-South Korea axis to counter, simultaneously, China and > the DPRK, is a joke compared to the DPRK?s brand-new role as a sort of > Asia-Pacific Military District, adjacent to their immediate neighbor, the Russian > Far East. > > There will be military integration, of course, in missile defense, radars, ports, > airfields. But the key vector, along the way, will be geoeconomic integration. > Sanctions from now on are meaningless. > > No one in 2014 was seeing this all play out, except for a very sharp analyst who > coined the precious Double Helix[3] concept to define the still evolving, at the > time, Russia-China comprehensive strategic partnership. > > The Double Helix perfectly explains the full-spectrum geostrategic symbiosis > between two civilization-states which happen to be former empires but since the > middle of the previous decade willfully decided to accelerate their mutual drive > to lead the Global Majority in the path towards multipolarity. > > The Road to Polycentricity > > All of the above finely coalesced in the last panel[4] in Vladivostok - informally > known even to the Japanese and Koreans as ?the European capital of Asia?, in the > heart of Asia-Pacific. The debate was on a ?global alternative to Western > dominance?. The West, incidentally, was absolutely invisible at the Forum. > > Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova summed it all up: the recent G20 and > BRICS summits[5] had set the stage for President Putin?s remarkable address to the > plenary session in Vladivostok. > > Zakharova alluded to ?fantastic strategic patience?. That applies to the whole > ?pivot to Asia? policy and boosting the development of the Far East, initiated in > 2012, and now implying a full turn of the Russian economy towards Asia-Pacific > geoeconomics. But at the same time, that also applies to integrating the DPRK into > the geoeconomic Eurasian high-speed train. > > Zakharova stressed how Russia ?never supported isolation?; always ?advocated > partnership? ? which the Forum graphically displayed for dozens of Global South > delegations. And now, under the conditions of a ?dirty fight, unlawful and with no > rules?, a serious stand-off, the Russian position remains easily recognizable for > the Global Majority: ?Not to accept dictatorship?. > > Andrey Denisov, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, made a point to > mention crack political analyst Sergey Karaganov as one of the key drivers of the > concept of Greater Eurasia. More than ?multipolarity?, Denisov argued, what is > being built is ?polycentricity?: a series of concentric circles, involving plenty > of dialogue partners. > > Former Austrian Foreign Minister Karin Kneissl now heads a new think tank in St. > Petersburg, G.O.R.K.I. As a European who ended up being ostracized by her own > peers under the blatant toxicity of cancel culture, she stressed how freedom and > rule of law have disappeared in Europe. > > Kneissl referred to the Battle of Actium as the key passage of power from the > Eastern Mediterranean to the Western Mediterranean: ?That?s when the dominance of > the West started?, complete with all the mythology built around the Roman Empire > which obsesses the Anglosphere to this day. > > With sanctions[6] dementia and irrational Russophobia installed at the head of the EU > and the European Commission, Kneissl stressed, the notion that ?treaties must be > preserved? disappeared while ?the rule of law has been destroyed. This is the > worst that could have happened to Europe?. > > Alexander Dugin, online, called for understanding ?the depth of Western > domination?, expressed via hyper-liberalism. And he proposed a key breakthrough: > the Western modus operandi should become an object of research, in a sort of > Gramscian attempt to define what distinguishes Western ideology, and thus act > towards ?deep decolonization?. > > In a sense this is what is being attempted by current actors in West Africa ? > Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger. That poses the question of who is a real Sovereign in a > new world. The West, argues Dugin, is a Total Sovereign; Russia, as a nuclear > power and prime military power defined as an existential threat by the Hegemon, is > also a Sovereign. > > Then there?s China, India, Iran, Turkey. These are key poles in a dialogue of > civilizations; actually what was proposed by former Iranian President Khatami way > back in the late 1990s, and then dismissed by the Hegemon. > > Dugin remarked how China ?has moved far away in building a civilizational state?. > Russia, Iran, India are not far behind. These will be the essential actors > steering the world towards polycentricity. [1] https://forumvostok.ru/en/programme/business-programme/?day=11.09.2023 [2] https://sputnikglobe.com/20230728/north-korea-showcases-military-might-during-pyongyang-parade-1112204695.html [3] https://www.mediafire.com/file/08rzue8ffism94t/China-Russia_Double_Helix.docx/file [4] https://forumvostok.ru/programme/business-programme/?day=13.09.2023 [5] https://sputnikglobe.com/20230914/dedollarization-accelerating-within-brics-across-globe---netley-group-1113359503.html [6] https://sputnikglobe.com/20230918/russias-economy-recovered-country-withstood-sanctions-pressure---putin-1113456789.html From jbn at forestfield.org Thu Sep 21 00:17:27 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Wed, 20 Sep 2023 19:17:27 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] How Rumble.com earns your respect In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I wrote: > This is why it's worth passing around rumble.com URLs instead of YouTube. Rumble has > a history of going up against state-sponsored calls for censorship such as when > France told Rumble to stop carrying RT and other Russian outlets Rumble reacted by > continuing to carry those channels and telling France that they'd rather give up the > French market than comply with censorship. France blocked Rumble and we get one more > place to pick up the news that we're not supposed to see or hear. Rumble.com is earning more respect today with their response to the UK Parliament in https://twitter.com/chrispavlovski/status/1704593845546094683 Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski wrote: > The attacks on Rumble are relentless, from all angles, and accelerating > > Having the support of the people to defend what's right (constitutional values) is > all I need to keep taking the punches and moving forward > > I can never thank our supporters enough for getting behind us ?? Here's the text of the query and response. UK Parliamentary query: > Culture, Media and Sport Committee > House of Commons, London SW1A OAA > Tel 020 7219 6188 website www.parliament.uk/cms > > Chris Pavlovski > Chief Executive Officer Rumble > > By email > > 20 September 2023 > > Dear Chris, > > I am writing concerning the serious allegations regarding Russell Brand, in the > context of his being a content provider on Rumble with more than 1.4 million > followers. > > The Culture, Media and Sport Committee is raising questions with the broadcasters > and production companies who previously employed Mr Brand to examine both the > culture of the industry in the past and whether that culture still prevails today. > > However, we are also looking at his use of social media, including on Rumble where > he issued his pre-emptive response to the accusations made against him by The > Sunday Times and Channel 4's Dispatches. While we recognise that Rumble is not the > creator of the content published by Mr Brand, we are concerned that he may be able > to profit from his content on the platform. > > We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr Brand is able to monetise his > content, including his videos relating to the serious accusations against him. If > so, we would like to know whether Rumble intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr > Brand's ability to earn money on the platform. > > We would also like to know what Rumble is doing to ensure that creators are not > able to use the platform to undermine the welfare of victims of inappropriate and > potentially illegal behaviour. > > Yours sincerely, > > Dame Caroline Dinenage DBE MP > Chair, Culture, Media and Sport Committee Rumble's response: > Today we received an extremely disturbing letter from a committee chair in the UK > Parliament. > > While Rumble obviously deplores sexual assault, rape, and all serious crimes, and > believes that both alleged victims and the accused are entitled to a full and > serious investigation, it is vital to note that recent allegations against Russell > Brand have nothing to do with content on Rumble's platform. > > Just yesterday, YouTube announced that, based solely on these media accusations, > it was barring Mr. Brand from monetizing his video content. Rumble stands for very > different values. We have devoted ourselves to the vital cause of defending a free > internet ? meaning an internet where no one arbitrarily dictates which ideas can > or cannot be heard, or which citizens may or may not be entitled to a platform. > > We regard it as deeply inappropriate and dangerous that the UK Parliament would > attempt to control who is allowed to speak on our platform or to earn a living > from doing so. Singling out an individual and demanding his ban is even more > disturbing given the absence of any connection between the allegations and his > content on Rumble. We don't agree with the behavior of many Rumble creators, but > we refuse to penalize them for actions that have nothing to do with our platform. > > Although it may be politically and socially easier for Rumble to join a cancel > culture mob, doing so would be a violation of our company's values and mission. We > emphatically reject the UK Parliament's demands. I think that, given the complaints from government figures at the US/UK hearings against Twitter, Facebook, and Google, it's clear that questions like these are aimed at increasing censorship among outlets. Talk of "control[ling] who is allowed to speak", "join[ing] a cancel culture mob", and "[s]ingling out an individual and demanding his ban" are quite reasonable reads into this letter. I don't know of any evidence against Brand nor the identities of the women who recently aired their claims via the media instead of filing lawsuits. All I've seen of these women are talking silhouettes with dramatic background music & camera angles, elements which make me think that I'm being manipulated as I'd expect from a drama. This is supposed to be serious business but it's not being handled very seriously by the parties who are bringing these claims to us. This is where calls for endless shunning of figures like Richard Stallman go when handled without due process. This is very much a part of the future the elites have planned for us all with tighter connections between one's banking, what one says online, and one's freedom of speech (as exhibited by the Canadian Trucker protests against mandating COVID jabs where supporters had their bank accounts frozen in a manufactured emergency). If you say or do something the establishment doesn't like, you can be made to suffer restrictions you didn't think were connected. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2023-10-20 Rumble response to UK Parliament.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 302208 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2023-10-20 - UK Parliament to Rumble.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 204839 bytes Desc: not available URL: From cgestabrook at gmail.com Thu Sep 21 18:12:44 2023 From: cgestabrook at gmail.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2023 13:12:44 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: [New post] Michael Brenner: Defeat References: <174340743.54261.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: <1EB63ACA-F5F7-4288-B50E-D3A39F4CD9A9@gmail.com> Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: > From: "scheerpost.com" > Date: September 21, 2023 at 12:51:10 PM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Subject: [New post] Michael Brenner: Defeat > > ? > scheerpost.com > Michael Brenner: Defeat > Editor > Sep 21 > > Ukrainian serviceman saluting in the UK, Feb. 2023. Ministry of Defence, OGL v1.0OGL v1.0, via Wikimedia Commons > By Michael Brenner / Original to ScheerPost > > The United States is being defeated in Ukraine. One could say that it is facing defeat - or, more starkly, that it is staring defeat in the face. Neither formulation is appropriate, though. The U.S. doesn't look reality squarely in the eye. We prefer to look at the world through the distorted lenses of our fantasies. We plunge forward on whatever path we've chosen while averting our eyes from the topography that we are trying to traverse. Our sole guiding light is the glow of a distant mirage. That is our lodestone. > > It is not that America is a stranger to defeat. We are very well acquainted with it: Vietnam, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria - in strategic terms if not always military terms. To this broad category, we might add Venezuela, Cuba, and Niger. That rich experience in frustrated ambition has failed to liberate us from the deeply rooted habit of eliding defeat. Indeed, we have acquired a large inventory of methods for doing so. > > DEFINING & DETERMINING DEFEAT > > Before examining them, let us specify what we mean by 'defeat.' Simply put, defeat is a failure to meet objectives ? at tolerable cost. The term also encompasses unintended, adverse second-order consequences. > > What were Washington's objectives in sabotaging the Minsk peace plan and cold-shouldering subsequent Russian proposals, in provoking Russia by crossing clearly demarcated red lines, in pressing for Ukraine?s membership in NATO; in installing missile batteries in Poland and Rumania; in transforming the Ukrainian army into a potent military force deployed on the line-of-contact in the Donbas ready to invade or goad Moscow into preemptive action? The aim was to either pin a humiliating defeat on the Russian army or, at least, to inflict such heavy costs as to cut the ground from under the Putin government. The crucial, complementary dimension of the strategy was the imposition of economic sanctions so onerous as to implode a vulnerable Russian economy. Together, they would generate acute distress leading to the deposing of Putin - whether by a cabal of opponents (disgruntled oligarchs as the spearhead) or by mass protest. It was predicated on the fatally ill-informed supposition that he was an absolute dictator running a one-man show, The U.S. foresaw his replacement by a more pliable government ready to become a willing but marginal presence on the European stage and a non-player elsewhere. In the crude words of one Moscow official, ?a tenant-farmer on Uncle Sam's global plantation.? > The taming and domestication of Russia was conceived as a vital step in the impending great confrontation with China - designated the systemic rival to American hegemony. Theoretically, that objective could be achieved either by enticing Russia away from China (divide and subordinate) or totally neutralizing Russia as a world power by bringing down its stiff-backed leadership. The former approach never went beyond a few desultory, feeble gestures. All the chips were placed on the latter. > Ancillary benefits for the United States from a war over Ukraine that would bring Russia low were a) to consolidate the Atlantic alliance under Washington's control, expand NATO and open an unbridgeable abyss between Russia and the rest of Europe that would endure for the foreseeable future; b) to that end, the termination of the latter's heavy reliance on energy resources from Russia; and c) thereby, substituting higher-priced LNG and petroleum from the United States that would seal the European partners' status as dependent economic vassals. If the last were a drag on their industry, so be it. > The grandiose goals stated in (1) and (2) manifestly have proven unreachable -indeed, fanciful ? a blunt truth not as yet absorbed by American elites. Those in (3) are consolation prizes of diminished value. This outcome was determined in good part, albeit not at all entirely, by the military failure in Ukraine. We now are about to enter the final act. Kiev?s vaunted counter-offense has gone nowhere ? at an enormous cost to the Ukrainian military. It has been bled white by massive losses of manpower, by the destruction of the greater part of its armor, by the ruin of vital infrastructure. The Western-trained elite brigades have been mauled, and there no longer are any reserves to throw into the battle. Moreover, the flow of weapons and ammunition from the West has slowed as American and European stocks are running low (e.g. 155mm artillery shells). The shortage is being aggravated by newfound inhibitions about sending Ukraine advanced weapons which have proven highly vulnerable to Russian firepower. That holds especially for armor: German Leopards, British Challengers, French AMX-10-RC tanks as well as Combat Fighting Vehicles (CFV) like the American Bradleys and Strykers. Graphic images of burnt-out hulks littering the Ukrainian steppe are not advertisements for either Western military technology or foreign sales. Hence, too, the slow-walking of deliveries to Kiev of the promised Abrams and F-16s lest they suffer the same fate. > > Support our Independent Journalism ? Donate Today! > > SUBSCRIBE TO PATREON > DONATE ON PAYPAL > The illusion of eventual success on the battlefield (with its envisaged wearing down of Russia?s will and capacity) is founded on a mistaken idea of how to measure winning and losing. American leaders, military as well as civilian, are stuck to a model that emphasizes control of territory. Russian military thinking is different. Its emphasis is on the destruction of the enemy?s forces, by whatever strategy is suited to the prevailing conditions. Then, in command of the battlefield, they can work their will. The aggressive tactics of the Ukrainians entails the throwing of its resources into combat in relentless campaigns to evict the Russians from the Donbas and Crimea. Unable to achieve any breakthrough, they invited themselves to a war of attrition much to their disadvantage. It has been succeeded by this summer?s all-out last fling which has proven suicidal. They thereby played into the Russians? hands. Hence, while attention is fixed on who occupies this village or that on the Zaporizhhia front or around Bakhmut, the real story is that Russia has been dismantling the reconstituted Ukrainian army piece by piece. > > In historical perspective, there are two instructive analogies. In the last year of WW I, the German high command launched an audacious campaign (Operation Michael) on the Western Front in March 1918 using a number of innovative tactics (featuring commando squads, stormtroopers, equipped with flame-throwers) to punch holes in allied lines. After initial gains that brought them across the Marne, attended by very heavy casualties, the offensive petered out and allowed the allies to roll over their gravely depleted forces ? leading to the final collapse in November. More pertinent is the battle of Kursk in July 1943 wherein the Nazis made a massive attempt to regain the initiative after the disaster at Stalingrad. Again, after some noteworthy success in breaching two Soviet defense lines they exhausted themselves short of their objective. That battle opened the long, bloody road to Berlin. Ukraine, today, has suffered huge losses of even greater (proportional) magnitude, without achieving any significant territorial gains, unable even to reach the first layer of the Surovikin Line. That will clear the road to the Dnieper and beyond for the 600,000 strong Russian army equipped with weaponry the equal of what we have given Ukraine. Hence, Moscow is poised to exploit its decisive advantage to the point where it can dictate terms to Kiev, Washington, Brussels et al. > > The Biden administration has made no plans for such an eventuality, nor have its obedient European governments. Their divorce from reality will make this state of affairs all the more stunning ? and galling. Bereft of ideas, they will flounder. How they will react in unknowable. We can say with certainty one thing: the collective West, and especially the U.S., will have suffered a grave defeat. Coping with that truth will become the main order of business. > > Here is a menu of options for handling it. > > 1. Redefine what is meant by defeat/ victory, failure/success, lose/gain. There is a new narrative that is scripted to stress these talking points: > > ? It is Russia that has lost the contest because heroic Ukraine and a steadfast West have prevented it from conquering, occupying and reincorporating all of the country > > ? By contrast, Sweden and Finland formally have joined the American camp by entering NATO. That complicates Moscow?s strategic plans by forcing a dispersion of its forces across a wider front > > ? Russia has been politically isolated on the world scene (MB: that is because North America, EU/NATO EUROPE, Japan, South Korea, Australia & New Zealand have backed the Ukrainian cause. Not a single other country has agreed to apply economic sanctions; the ?world? does not include China, India, Brazil, Argentina, Turkey, Iran, Egypt, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, South Africa et al). > > ? The Western democracies have displayed unprecedented solidarity in responding as one to the Russian threat > > This narrative already has been given an airing in speeches by Blinken, Sullivan. Austin and Nuland. Its target audience is the American public; nobody outside the Collective West buys it, though ? whether Washington has registered that fact of diplomatic life or not. > > 2. Retroactively scale back your goals and stakes. > > ? Make no further reference to regime change in Moscow, to toppling Putin, to crashing the Russian economy, to breaking the Sino-Russian partnership or to fatally weaken it. > > ? Speak of safeguarding the integrity of the Ukrainian state by denying that the Donbas and Crimea have been permanently severed from the ?mother country.? Emphasize that your friends in Kiev are still titular, legitimate leaders of Ukraine. > > ? Aim for a permanent ceasefire that would freeze the two sides in existing positions, i.e. a de facto division a la Korea. The Western portion then would be admitted to NATO and the EU, and rearmed. Ignore the inconvenient truth that Russia would never accept a ceasefire on those terms > > ? Maintain the economic sanctions on Russia but look the other way when needy European partners make under-the-table deals for Russian oil and LNG (mostly through intermediaries like India, Turkey and Kazakhstan) as they have been doing throughout the conflict > > ? Put the spotlight on China as the mortal threat to America and the West while disparaging Russia as just its auxiliary. > > ? Highlight symbolic gestures like the strikes by top-of-the-line supersonic and hypersonic cruise missiles transferred from the U.S., Britain and France that can inflict damage on prominent targets in Russia itself and Crimea (with crucial technical support from American and other NATO personnel). MB: this act is akin to rabid fans of a football team that just lost to a hated rival who puncture the tires on the bus scheduled to take them to the airport > > ? Pull out all stops to keep Anna Netrebko - a citizen of Austria - from singing in major capitals. Threaten with heavy sanctions those concert halls which break the boycott ? e.g. the Staatsoper in Berlin (ban from visiting Disneyland General Director Herr Matthias Schulz and his progeny unto the fourth generation?) > > 3. Cultivate AMNESIA > > Americans have become masters in the art of memory management. > > Think about the tragic shock of Vietnam. The country made a systematic effort to forget ? to forget everything about Vietnam. Understandably; it was ugly - on every count. Textbooks in American history gave it little space; teachers downplayed it; television soon disregarded it as retro. We sought closure ? we got it. > > In a sense, the most noteworthy inheritance from the post-Vietnam experience is the honing of methods to photoshop history. Vietnam was a warm-up for dealing with the many unsavory episodes in the post-9/11 era. That thorough, comprehensive cleansing has made palatable Presidential mendacity, sustained deceit, mind-numbing incompetence, systemic torture, censorship, the shredding of the Bill of Rights and the perverting of national public discourse - as it degenerated into a mix of propaganda and vulgar trash-talking. The ?War on Terror? in all its atrocious aspects > > Cultivated amnesia is a craft enormously facilitated by two broader trends in American culture: the cult of ignorance whereby a knowledge-free mind is esteemed as the ultimate freedom; and a public ethic whereby the nation?s highest officials are given license to treat the truth as a potter treats clay so long as they say and do things that make us feel good. So, our strongest collective memory of America?s wars of choice is the desirability ? and ease ? of forgetting them. ?The show must go on? is taken as our imperative. So it will be when we look at a ruined Ukraine in the rear-view mirror. > > The cultivation of amnesia as a method for dealing with painful national experiences has serious drawbacks. First, it severely restricts the opportunity to learn the lessons it offers. In the wake of the inconclusive Korean War where the United States suffered 49,000 killed in action, the mantra in Washington was: no war on the mainland of Asia ever again. Yet, less than a decade later we were knee-deep in the rice paddies of Vietnam where we lost 59,000 people. After the tragic fiasco in Iraq, Washington nonetheless was gung-ho about occupying Afghanistan in a 20-year enterprise to construct a similar Western-leaning democracy out of the barrel of a gun. Those frustrated projects did not dissuade us from intervening in Syria where we failed once again to turn an intractable, alien society into something to our liking ? even though we went to such an extreme as a tacit partnership with the local al-Qaeda subsidiary. As Kabul showed, we didn?t even take away from the Saigon denouement the lesson in how to organize an orderly evacuation. > > At the very least, one might have expected that a reasonable person would have come away with an acute awareness of how crucial is a fine-grain understanding of the culture, social organization, mores and philosophical outlook of the country we were committed to reconstituting. Still, we manifestly have not assimilated that elementary truth. Witness our abysmal ignorance of all things Russian that has led us to a fatal miscalculation of every aspect of the Ukraine affair. > > NEXT: CHINA > > Ukraine, in turn, is not cooling the ardor for confrontation with China. An audacious, and by no means a compelling, enterprise that is ensconced as the centerpiece of our official national security strategy. Senior Washington officials openly predict the inevitability of all-out war before the end of the decade ? nuclear weapons notwithstanding. Moreover, Taiwan is cast in the same role as that played by Ukraine in the American scheme of things. So, having provoked a multi-dimensional conflict with Russia which has failed on all counts, we hastily commit ourselves to the nearly exact same strategy in taking on an even more formidable foe. This could be classified as what the French call a fuite en avant ? an escape forward. In other words: Bring it on! We?re geared up for it. > > The march to war with China defies all conventional wisdom. After all, it poses no military threat to our security or core interests. China has no history of empire-building or conquest. China has been the source of great economic benefit via dense exchanges that serve us as well as them. Therefore, what is the justification for the widespread judgment that a crossing-of-swords is inescapable? Sensible nations do not commit themselves to a possibly cataclysmic war because China, the designated number one enemy, builds radar warning stations on sandy atolls in the South China Sea. Because it markets electric vehicles more cheaply than we can. Because its advances in developing semi-conductors may outclass ours. Because of its treatment of an ethnic minority in western China. Because it follows our example in funding NGOs that promote a positive view of their country. Because it engages in industrial espionage just the way the United States and everybody else does. Because it wafts balloons over North America (declared benign by General Milley last week). > > None of these are compelling reasons to press hard for a confrontation. The truth is far simpler ? and far more disquieting. We are obsessed with China because it exists. Like K-2, that itself is a challenge for we must prove our prowess (to others, but mainly to ourselves), that we can surmount it. That is the true meaning of a perceived existential threat. > > The focal shift from Russia in Europe to China in Asia is less a mechanism for coping with defeat than the pathological reaction of a country that, feeling a gnawing sense of diminishing prowess, can manage to do nothing more than try one final fling at proving to itself that it still has the right stuff ? since living without that exalted sense of self is intolerable. What is deemed heterodox, and daring, in Washington these days is to argue that we should wrap up the Ukraine affair one way or another so that we might gird our loins for the truly historic contest with Beijing. The disconcerting truth that nobody of consequence in the country?s foreign policy establishment has denounced this hazardous turn toward war supports the proposition that deep emotions rather than reasoned thought are propelling us toward an avoidable, potentially catastrophic conflict. > > A society represented by an entire political class that is not sobered by that prospect rightly can be judged as providing prime facie evidence of being collectively unhinged. > > Second, amnesia may serve the purpose of sparing our political elites, and the American populace at large, the acute discomfort of acknowledging mistakes and defeat. However, that success is not matched by an analogous process of memory erasure in other places. We were fortunate, in the case of Vietnam, that the United States? dominant position in the world outside of the Soviet Bloc and the PRC allowed us to maintain respect, status and influence. Things have now changed, though. Our relative strength in all domains is weaker, there are strong centrifugal forces around the global that are producing a dispersion of power, will and outlook among other states. The BRICs phenomenon is the concrete embodiment of that reality. Hence, the prerogatives of the United States are narrowing, our ability to shape the global system in conformity with our ideas and interests are under mounting challenge, and premiums are being placed on diplomacy of an order that seems beyond our present aptitudes. > > We are confounded. > > Subscribe to our weekly newsletter > > * indicates required > Email Address * > > > > > > Michael Brenner > > Michael Brenner is Professor Emeritus of International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh and a Fellow of the Center for Transatlantic Relations at SAIS/Johns Hopkins. He was the Director of the International Relations & Global Studies Program at the University of Texas. Brenner is the author of numerous books, and over 80 articles and published papers. His most recent works are: Democracy Promotion and Islam; Fear and Dread In The Middle East; Toward A More Independent Europe ; Narcissistic Public Personalities & Our Times. His writings include books with Cambridge University Press (Nuclear Power and Non-Proliferation), the Center For International Affairs at Harvard University (The Politics of International Monetary Reform), and the Brookings Institution (Reconcilable Differences, US-French Relations In The New Era). > > Author Site > Comment > Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from scheerpost.com. > Change your email settings at manage subscriptions. > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > https://scheerpost.com/2023/09/21/michael-brenner-defeat/ > > Get the Jetpack app to use Reader anywhere, anytime > Follow your favorite sites, save posts to read later, and get real-time notifications for likes and comments. > > > > Automattic, Inc. - 60 29th St. #343, San Francisco, CA 94110 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Thu Sep 21 19:09:26 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2023 14:09:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] UK government continues with a letter to TikTok In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I wrote: > Rumble.com is earning more respect today with their response to the UK Parliament in > https://twitter.com/chrispavlovski/status/1704593845546094683 The UK Parliament has sent what appears to be a form letter, this time to TikTok (attached in PDF and JPEG forms or get your own copy of the PDF from https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/41488/documents/204326/default/ ): Viva Frei posted https://twitter.com/thevivafrei/status/1704572524887990521 saying: > The British government is now asking TikTok if @rustyrockets is able to monetize > his content on that platform. > > This was never about Russell Brand. > > This was a political pretext so governments across the world can coordinate with > social media companies to acquire total control over dissenting voices on the > Internet. Caitlin Johnstone quoted that post in https://twitter.com/caitoz/status/1704623057997099470 saying: > Silicon Valley, the mass media and the British government seem to be doing > everything they can to delegitimize the very serious allegations against Russell > Brand by making it abundantly clear to everyone that what they actually care about > is his online content, not his accusers. If you're wondering how this could possibly be relevant to a peace-discuss audience, I offer two explanations: 1. Russell Brand is a popular speaker on multiple issues including opposing war. He sees right through the establishment narrative on our wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, and the proxy war in Ukraine against Russia. He might also see through the establishment lies in other wars as well (I don't know enough what he's said to offer an opinion). 2. Freedom of speech ought to concern you in general but in particular as it applies to speaking up against our wars. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2023-10-19 UK Parliament letter to TikTok.pdf Type: application/pdf Size: 173442 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2023-10-19 UK Parliament letter to TikTok.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 167668 bytes Desc: not available URL: From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Thu Sep 21 21:11:54 2023 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2023 16:11:54 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Russell_Brand_=E2=80=93_Class_Consciou?= =?utf-8?q?sness_Project?= Message-ID: https://classconsciousnessproject.blog/2023/09/20/russell-brand/ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Sat Sep 23 04:31:40 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2023 23:31:40 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Jeffrey Sachs' and Anya Parampil's recent interviews are interesting to watch or listen to In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <30fdc37a-6551-4bdb-b400-54800a2e6598@forestfield.org> I wrote: > The Duran > > https://rumble.com/v3i6luo-us-efforts-to-strangle-china-and-reassert-hegemony-jeffrey-sachs-alexander-.html -- The Duran interviews Jeffrey Sachs Kim Iversen did an interview with Jeffrey Sachs tonight -- https://rumble.com/v3jyjo8-september-22-2023.html -- which covers two topics of international interest: the origin of COVID-19 and Ukraine war policy. Both are subjects one simply cannot discuss freely on YouTube (which is probably why Iversen's YouTube page only features short videos around 20-30 minutes instead of the full 90-minute interviews). Also, Iversen's recent interview with The Grayzone's Anya Parampil is interesting -- https://rumble.com/v3jffe6-its-the-end-of-the-u.s-empire-a-conversation-with-anya-parampil.html -- and her book "Corporate Coup: The Failed Attempt to Overthrow Venezuela Democracy" has been estimated to be delivered multiple times: Wednesday, May 24, 2023 Wednesday, September 20, 2023 Latest estimate: Wednesday, January 17, 2024 RFK Jr.'s new book "The Wuhan Cover-Up: How US Health Officials Conspired with the Chinese Military to Hide the Origins of COVID-19" also has multiple delivery estimates: Wednesday, February 22, 2023 Wednesday, April 26, 2023 Wednesday, May 31, 2023 Wednesday, June 28, 2023 Wednesday, August 2, 2023 Tuesday, September 19, 2023 Wednesday, October 18, 2023 Latest estimate: Wednesday, November 15, 2023 Considering what a major seller Kennedy's Fauci expose ("The Real Anthony Fauci: Bill Gates, Big Pharma, and the Global War on Democracy and Public Health") was, you might think that the publishers would be eager to quickly get this new book into people's hands. From jbn at forestfield.org Tue Sep 26 02:48:15 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Mon, 25 Sep 2023 21:48:15 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] =?utf-8?q?Russell_Brand_=E2=80=93_Class_Consciou?= =?utf-8?q?sness_Project?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: David Green pointed us to https://classconsciousnessproject.blog/2023/09/20/russell-brand/ which is a very good article on this. Consider this quote from that article: > Now I am not here to hang Brand before his trial as the media and public opinion > seems to have already done, but what we should ask is why now? Why, after ten > years, has this just come out now? Why, if his perversions are such an open secret > as the media will have you believe, has it only reached our ears this week in > 2023, twenty years after the first allegation? > > The answer is that he has now become an irritant to the establishment. His YouTube > show has popularised issues that the capitalist media is not allowed to cover and > his fame gave him a wider audience than any other alternative media sources. Glenn Greenwald's show tonight https://rumble.com/v3kql8m-system-update-show-150.html is also highly recommendable and makes a number of good points, including the above. Not only is the timing suspicious but consistent with the sex pest smears against Julian Assange, and the purposeful failure to look into Tara Reade's accusation of rape against Joe Biden. Greenwald doesn't fall for the bait of reaching a conclusion on whether Brand did what he's accused of (Greenwald was clear that he's reached no conclusion on that). Even if Brand did what he's anonymously accused of doing that history wouldn't change the veracity of what Brand has said about war, media lying, and other related issues (such as what he said on today's episode of his show with Jimmy Dore). Challenging war is serious business. War objectors with an audience continue to get smeared in rumor-mongering media. Establishment-serving outlets quickly (in days) withdraw money (such as ad revenue), and it's not clear that there's anything to do but insist on principled argument for free speech and evidence-based counterargument to the establishment narrative. From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Sep 29 03:01:12 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 28 Sep 2023 22:01:12 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Recent good Ukraine war background explainer and on Canada giving a WWII Nazi a standing ovation Message-ID: <69ed3701-fa6d-4227-9f96-0108071007c7@forestfield.org> The best explanation I've seen so far on Canada's recent standing ovation for a 98-year-old Ukrainian Nazi veteran Yaroslav Hunka is from Rachel Blevins: Trudeau Bemoans 'Russian Propaganda' Amid Backlash for Celebrating Ukrainian Nazi Veteran https://rumble.com/v3l5mda-trudeau-bemoans-russian-propaganda-amid-backlash-for-celebrating-ukrainian-.html I thought that she might be a bit too lenient on Canada calling this an oversight but then later she does state that Canada celebrated a Nazi until they saw that they couldn't get away with it, which I think is what really happened (given the evidence she presents -- the attached photo published by Theresa Hunka (Yaroslav's daughter) with the caption "Dedo is waiting in the reception hall for Trudeau and Zelensky" and the House Speaker Anthony Rota's introductory text which included "a Ukrainian hero, a Canadian hero? who fought for Ukrainian independence against the Russians" in WWII). PM Trudeau never apologized nor resigned; he tried to claim that parliament was "unaware of the context" and later offered "parliament's unreserved apologies for what happened on Friday" and then Rota resigned. Aaron Mat? asks an excellent question in his latest Substack essay https://mate.substack.com/p/why-is-applauding-ukrainian-nazis -- "Why is applauding Ukrainian Nazis a scandal, but not arming them?". Also worth seeing or hearing is Jimmy Dore's address to the UN Security Council -- https://rumble.com/v3ljh02-jimmy-dore-addresses-un-security-council-full-video.html as he covers what Western media won't, the full relevant history of our proxy war against Russia via Ukraine. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Dedo is waiting.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 77206 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Fri Sep 29 22:36:41 2023 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Fri, 29 Sep 2023 17:36:41 -0500 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Best response to Sen. Diane Feinstein's death from Scott Ritter Message-ID: <26e82c45-ed6e-427d-bd43-edae88ce78ec@forestfield.org> Quoting https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1707760992300490794 from Scott Ritter who is a former UN Weapons Inspector, former USMC Intelligence Officer, currently an author and an analyst. You can find episodes of his show, "Ask the Inspector" on https://rumble.com/c/USTourOfDuty . The upcoming episode airs tonight at https://rumble.com/v3lldbv-scott-ritter-extra-ep.-102-ask-the-inspector.html Here's Ritter not long after news of Sen. Diane Feinstein broke that she had died this week, aged 90: > I met Senator Diane Feinstein once, in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. > She had just recently been assigned to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence > (in 2001), and it was in that capacity that she had a senior staffer from the > committee ask me to come to Washington DC to brief her on Iraqi WMD and the > allegations being made by the Bush administration that Iraq continued to possess > them. We met in a secure conference room in the Capital building?me, the Senator, > and a half dozen staffers and aides. It was a polite, professional affair, with > the Senator asking questions and taking notes. Eventually she confronted me??Your > position is causing us some difficulty. You are making the US look bad in the eyes > of the world.? I replied that my analysis and the underlying facts were rock > solid, something she agreed with. I said that while I knew she couldn?t reveal > sensitive intelligence, if she could look me in the eye and say she has seen > unequivocal proof that Iraq retained WMD, I?d shut up and go away. She looked at > her retinue, and then me. ?I have seen no such intelligence,? she replied. She > thanked me for the briefing, and said it provided her with ?food for thought.? > > On October 11, 2002, Senator Feinstein voted in favor of the resolution > authorizing war with Iraq. Later, she said she had been misled by the Bush > administration and bad intelligence. > > I will forever know Senator Feinstein as someone who had been empowered by the > truth, and lacked the moral courage to act on it. The blood of thousands of > Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis stains her soul. I hope when she > stands in judgment before her maker, she is punished accordingly. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2023-09-29 Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter).png Type: image/png Size: 501253 bytes Desc: not available URL: From moboct1 at aim.com Sat Sep 30 00:18:10 2023 From: moboct1 at aim.com (moboct1 at aim.com) Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2023 00:18:10 +0000 (UTC) Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fw: Best response to Sen. Diane Feinstein's death from Scott Ritter In-Reply-To: <26e82c45-ed6e-427d-bd43-edae88ce78ec@forestfield.org> References: <26e82c45-ed6e-427d-bd43-edae88ce78ec@forestfield.org> Message-ID: <685677093.4840475.1696033090476@mail.yahoo.com> SCOTT RITTER:?? WITH THE FACTS YOU KNEW ABOUT NO WMDS IN IRAQ AND INFORMED SENATOR FEINSTEIN AND THE REST OF US (WHO LISTENED): STILL YOU VOTED TWICE (AS I RECALL YOU SAID) FOR GEORGE W. BUSH FOR PRESIDENT (AND THE INEVITABLE IRAQ WAR 11 AND ENDLESS MIDDLE EAST TURMOIL).?M. O'Brien ----- Forwarded Message ----- From: J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss To: Peace-Discuss mailing list Sent: Friday, September 29, 2023 at 05:37:14 PM CDTSubject: [Peace-discuss] Best response to Sen. Diane Feinstein's death from Scott Ritter Quoting https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1707760992300490794 from Scott Ritter who is a former UN Weapons Inspector, former USMC Intelligence Officer, currently an author and an analyst. You can find episodes of his show, "Ask the Inspector" on https://rumble.com/c/USTourOfDuty . The upcoming episode airs tonight at https://rumble.com/v3lldbv-scott-ritter-extra-ep.-102-ask-the-inspector.html Here's Ritter not long after news of Sen. Diane Feinstein broke that she had died this week, aged 90: > I met Senator Diane Feinstein once, in the lead up to the 2003 invasion of Iraq. > She had just recently been assigned to the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence > (in 2001), and it was in that capacity that she had a senior staffer from the > committee ask me to come to Washington DC to brief her on Iraqi WMD and the > allegations being made by the Bush administration that Iraq continued to possess > them. We met in a secure conference room in the Capital building?me, the Senator, > and a half dozen staffers and aides. It was a polite, professional affair, with > the Senator asking questions and taking notes. Eventually she confronted me??Your > position is causing us some difficulty. You are making the US look bad in the eyes > of the world.? I replied that my analysis and the underlying facts were rock > solid, something she agreed with. I said that while I knew she couldn?t reveal > sensitive intelligence, if she could look me in the eye and say she has seen > unequivocal proof that Iraq retained WMD, I?d shut up and go away. She looked at > her retinue, and then me. ?I have seen no such intelligence,? she replied. She > thanked me for the briefing, and said it provided her with ?food for thought.? > > On October 11, 2002, Senator Feinstein voted in favor of the resolution > authorizing war with Iraq. Later, she said she had been misled by the Bush > administration and bad intelligence. > > I will forever know Senator Feinstein as someone who had been empowered by the > truth, and lacked the moral courage to act on it. The blood of thousands of > Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis stains her soul. I hope when she > stands in judgment before her maker, she is punished accordingly. _______________________________________________ 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: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: 2023-09-29 Scott Ritter (@RealScottRitter).png Type: image/png Size: 501253 bytes Desc: not available URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Sat Sep 30 17:51:49 2023 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Sat, 30 Sep 2023 13:51:49 -0400 Subject: [Peace-discuss] Best response to Sen. Diane Feinstein's death from Scott Ritter In-Reply-To: <26e82c45-ed6e-427d-bd43-edae88ce78ec@forestfield.org> References: <26e82c45-ed6e-427d-bd43-edae88ce78ec@forestfield.org> Message-ID: Thanks for sharing this. It should be noted that every Member of Congress who voted for the war committed basically the same crime as Dianne Feinstein. Every Member of Congress has access to classified U.S. intelligence. Feinstein's responsibility was greater because she served on the Senate Intelligence Committee. Even if Scott Ritter had never existed, even if he had never tried to do anything, her responsibility would be about the same. Dick Durbin, who voted against the war, later gave a speech on the Senate floor saying that as a Member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, he knew at the time of the vote that the Bush Administration's public case for war did not match the U.S. intelligence he was seeing as a member of the Intelligence Committee. If Dick Durbin knew that, then every member of the Senate Intelligence Committee knew that. And of course, any Senator knew that if they wanted to know it - they could have just asked Dick Durbin, and he would have told them. So it's basically true of all of them. On Fri, Sep 29, 2023 at 6:37?PM J.B. Nicholson via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > Quoting https://twitter.com/RealScottRitter/status/1707760992300490794 > from Scott > Ritter who is a former UN Weapons Inspector, former USMC Intelligence > Officer, > currently an author and an analyst. You can find episodes of his show, > "Ask the > Inspector" on https://rumble.com/c/USTourOfDuty . The upcoming episode > airs tonight > at > https://rumble.com/v3lldbv-scott-ritter-extra-ep.-102-ask-the-inspector.html > > Here's Ritter not long after news of Sen. Diane Feinstein broke that she > had died > this week, aged 90: > > I met Senator Diane Feinstein once, in the lead up to the 2003 invasion > of Iraq. > > She had just recently been assigned to the Senate Select Committee on > Intelligence > > (in 2001), and it was in that capacity that she had a senior staffer > from the > > committee ask me to come to Washington DC to brief her on Iraqi WMD and > the > > allegations being made by the Bush administration that Iraq continued to > possess > > them. We met in a secure conference room in the Capital building?me, the > Senator, > > and a half dozen staffers and aides. It was a polite, professional > affair, with > > the Senator asking questions and taking notes. Eventually she confronted > me??Your > > position is causing us some difficulty. You are making the US look bad > in the eyes > > of the world.? I replied that my analysis and the underlying facts were > rock > > solid, something she agreed with. I said that while I knew she couldn?t > reveal > > sensitive intelligence, if she could look me in the eye and say she has > seen > > unequivocal proof that Iraq retained WMD, I?d shut up and go away. She > looked at > > her retinue, and then me. ?I have seen no such intelligence,? she > replied. She > > thanked me for the briefing, and said it provided her with ?food for > thought.? > > > > On October 11, 2002, Senator Feinstein voted in favor of the resolution > > authorizing war with Iraq. Later, she said she had been misled by the > Bush > > administration and bad intelligence. > > > > I will forever know Senator Feinstein as someone who had been empowered > by the > > truth, and lacked the moral courage to act on it. The blood of thousands > of > > Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis stains her soul. I hope > when she > > stands in judgment before her maker, she is punished accordingly. > _______________________________________________ > 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: