From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 1 15:50:25 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 1 Apr 2022 10:50:25 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Meet the New, Resource-Based Global Reserve Currency References: <20220401140146.1.5942FF0390A9DCC8@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: <017842F5-B5AC-4D23-BBBB-71C7B8DDAAD5@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Pepe Escobar / The Unz Review > Subject: Meet the New, Resource-Based Global Reserve Currency > 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 > Meet the New, Resource-Based Global Reserve Currency Pepe Escobar ? Thursday, March 31, 2022 ? 1,600 Words > A new reality is being formed: the unipolar world is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past, a multipolar one is taking shape > > It was something to behold. Dmitri Medvedev, former Russian President, unrepentant Atlanticist, current deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, decided to go totally unplugged in an outburst matching the combat star turn of Mr. Khinzal that delivered palpable shock and awe all across NATOstan. > > Medvedev said ?hellish? Western sanctions not only have failed to cripple Russia, but are instead ?returning to the West like a boomerang.? Confidence in reserve currencies is ?fading like the morning mist?, and ditching the US dollar and the euro is not unrealistic anymore: ?The era of regional currencies is coming.? > > After all, he added, ?no matter if they want it or not, they?ll have to negotiate a new financial order (?) And the decisive voice will then be with those countries that have a strong and advanced economy, healthy public finances and a reliable monetary system.? > > Medvedev relayed his succinct analysis even before D Day ? as in the deadline this Thursday established by President Putin after which payments for Russian gas by ?unfriendly nations? will only be accepted in rubles. > > The G7, predictably, had struck a (collective) pose: we won?t pay. ?We? means the 4 that are not large Russian gas importers. ?We?, moreover, means the Empire of Lies dictating the rules. As for the 3 that will be in dire straits, not only they are major importers but also happen to be WWII losers ? Germany, Italy and Japan, still de facto occupied territories. History does have a habit of playing perverted tricks. > > Denial didn?t last long. Germany was the first to break ? even before industrialists from Ruhr to Bavaria staged a mass revolt. Scholz, the puny Chancellor, called Putin, who had to explain the obvious: payments are being converted into rubles because the EU froze Russia?s foreign exchange reserves ? in a crass violation of international law. > > With Taoist patience, Putin also expressed hope this would not represent a deterioration in contract terms for European importers. Russian and German experts should sit down together and discuss the new terms. > > Moscow is working on a set of documents defining the new deal. Essentially, that spells out no rubles, no gas. Contracts become null and void once you violate trust. The US and the EU broke legally biding agreements with unilateral sanctions and on top of it confiscated foreign reserves of a ? nuclear ? G20 nation. > > The unilateral sanctions made dollars and euros worthless to Russia. Hysteria fits won?t cut it: this will be resolved ? but under Russia?s terms. Period. The Foreign Ministry had already warned that refusal to pay for gas in rubles would lead to a serious global crisis of non-payments and serial global-level bankruptcies, a hellish chain reaction of blocked transactions, freezing of collateral assets and closures of credit lines. > > What will happen next is partially predictable. EU companies will receive the new set of rules. They will have time to examine the documents and make a decision. Those that say ?no? will be automatically excluded from receiving direct Russian gas shipments ? all politico-economic consequences included. > > There will be some compromise, of course. For instance, quite a few EU nations will accept to use rubles and increase their gas acquisitions so they may resell the surplus to their neighbors and make a profit. And some may also decide to buy gas on the go on energy exchanges. > > So Russia is not imposing an ultimatum on anybody. The whole thing will take time ? a rolling process. With some sideway action as well. The Duma is contemplating the extension of payment in rubles to other essential products ? such as oil, metals, timber, wheat. It will depend on the collective voracity of the EU chihuahuas. Everyone knows that their non-stop hysteria may translate into a colossal rupture of supply chains across the West. > > Bye bye oligarchs > > While the Atlanticist ruling classes have gone totally berserk but still remain focused on fighting to the last European to extract any remaining, palpable EU wealth, Russia is playing it cool. Moscow has been quite lenient in fact, brandishing the specter of no gas in Spring rather than Winter. > > The Russian Central Bank nationalized foreign exchange earnings of all major exporters. There was no default. The ruble keeps rising ? and is now back to roughly the same level before Operation Z. Russia remains self-sufficient, food-wise. American hysteria over ?isolated? Russia is laughable. Every actor that matters across Eurasia ? not to mention the other 4 BRICS and virtually the whole Global South ? did not demonize and/or sanction Russia. > > As an extra bonus, arguably the last oligarch capable of influence in Moscow, Anatoly Chubais, is gone. Call it another momentous historical trickery: Western sanction hysteria de facto dismembered Russian oligarchy ? Putin?s pet project since 2000. What that implies is the strengthening of the Russian state and the consolidation of Russian society. > > We still don?t have all the facts, but a case can be made that after years of careful evaluation Putin opted to really go for broke and break the West?s back ? using that trifecta (imminent blitzkrieg on Donbass; US bioweapon labs; Ukraine working on nuclear weapons) as the casus belli. > > The freezing of foreign reserves had to have been forecasted, especially because the Russian Central Bank had been increasing its reserves of US Treasuries since November last year. Then there?s the serious possibility of Moscow being able to access ?secret? offshore foreign reserves ? a complex matrix built with Chinese insider help. > > The sudden switch from dollars/euros to rubles was hardcore, Olympic-level geoeconomic judo. Putin enticed the collective West to unleash its demented hysteria sanction attack ? and turned it against the opponent with a single, swift move. > > And here we all are now trying to absorb so many in-synch game-changing developments following the weaponization of dollar assets: rupee-ruble with India, the Saudi petroyuan, co-badged Mir-UnionPay cards issued by Russian banks, the Russia-Iran SWIFT alternative, the EAEU-China project of an independent monetary/financial system. > > Not to mention the master coup by the Russian Central Bank, pegging 1 gram of gold to 5,000 rubles ? which is already around \$60, and climbing. > > Coupled with No Rubles No Gas, what we have here is energy de facto pegged to gold. The EU Chihuahuas and the Japanese colony will need to buy a lot of rubles in gold or buy a lot of gold to have their gas. And it gets better. Russia may re-peg the ruble to gold in the near future. Could go to 2,000 rubles, 1,000 rubles, even 500 rubles for a gram of gold. > > Time to be sovereign > > The Holy Grail in the evolving discussions about a multipolar world, since the BRICS summits in the 2000s featuring Putin, Hu Jintao and Lula, has always been how to bypass dollar hegemony. It?s now right in front of the whole Global South, as a benign apparition bearing a Cheshire cat?s smile: the golden ruble, or ruble backed by oil, gas, minerals, commodity exports. > > The Russian Central Bank, unlike the Fed, does not practice QE and won?t export toxic inflation to the rest of the planet. The Russian Navy not only secures all Russian sea lines, but Russian nuclear-powered submarines are capable of popping up all over the planet unannounced. > > Russia is far, far ahead already implementing the concept of ?continental naval power?. December 2015, in the Syrian theater, was the strategic game-changer. The Black Sea-based submarine 4th division is the star of the show. > > Russian naval fleets may now employ Kalibr missiles across a space comprehending Eastern Europe, West Asia and Central Asia. The Caspian Sea and the Black Sea, linked by the Don-Volga canal, offer a space of maneuver comparable to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Persian Gulf combined. 6,000 km-long. And you don?t even need to access warm waters. > > That covers around 30 nations: the traditional Russian sphere of influence; historical borders of the Russian empire; and current political/energy rivalry spheres. > > No wonder the Beltway is berserk. > > Russia guarantees shipping across Asia, the Arctic and Europe, in tandem with the Eurasia-wide BRI railway network. > > And last but not least, don?t mess with a Nuclear Bear. > > Essentially, this is what hardcore power politics is all about. Medvedev was not bragging when he said the era of a single reserve currency is over. The advent of a resource-based global reserve currency means, in a nutshell, that 13% of the planet will not dominate the other 87% anymore. > > It?s NATOstan vs. Eurasia redux. Cold War 2.0, 3.0, 4.0 and even 5.0. It doesn?t matter. All the previous Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) nations see which way the geopolitical and geo-economic winds are blowing: the time to assert their real sovereignty is at hand as the ?rules-based international order? bites the dust. > > Welcome to the birth of the new world system. Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in China, after meeting several counterparts from across Eurasia, could not have outlined it better: > > ?A new reality is being formed: the unipolar world is irrevocably becoming a thing of the past, a multipolar one is taking shape. It?s an objective process. It?s unstoppable. In this reality, more than one power will ?rule? ? it will be necessary to negotiate between all the key states that today have a decisive influence on the world economy and politics. At the same time, realizing their special situation, these countries ensure compliance with the basic principles of the UN Charter, including the fundamental one ? the sovereign equality of states. No one on this Earth should be seen as a minor player. Everyone is equal and sovereign.? > > > Unsubscribe From This Mailing List -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sun Apr 3 23:56:23 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2022 18:56:23 -0500 Subject: [Peace] US war in Europe Message-ID: <47DC7249-42F3-4FD2-9F6E-93272B67D1AB@newsfromneptune.com> I'll vote for any Republican (Trumpist or not) who'll reverse Biden's war policy and stop sending weapons to Ukraine. Zelenskyy must end the war by asking the Russians for terms. https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis ?CGE From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Apr 4 00:29:08 2022 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (karen aram) Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2022 19:29:08 -0500 Subject: [Peace] US war in Europe In-Reply-To: <47DC7249-42F3-4FD2-9F6E-93272B67D1AB@newsfromneptune.com> References: <47DC7249-42F3-4FD2-9F6E-93272B67D1AB@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: I believe the Russians have already presented their terms. 1) Never join Nato. 2) Be a neutral nation. However, even if Zelensky agrees the US will not allow it. As to voting the only Republican likely to reverse Biden?s war policy and sending weapons to Ukraine is Trump, not because he?s a humanitarian but because he see?s the inherent dangers of continuing, as well as the business opportunities if he befriends Russia and Nato. Trump unlike Biden is not supported by the oil and gas companies so he is unlikely to get elected. > On Apr 3, 2022, at 6:56 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote: > > I'll vote for any Republican (Trumpist or not) who'll reverse Biden's war policy and stop sending weapons to Ukraine. > > Zelenskyy must end the war by asking the Russians for terms. > > https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis > > ?CGE > > > From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Apr 4 00:38:38 2022 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (karen aram) Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2022 19:38:38 -0500 Subject: [Peace] US war in Europe In-Reply-To: References: <47DC7249-42F3-4FD2-9F6E-93272B67D1AB@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: > > I believe the Russians have already presented their terms. 1) Never join Nato. 2) Be a neutral nation. However, even if Zelensky agrees the US will not allow it. > > As to voting the only Republican likely to reverse Biden?s war policy and sending weapons to Ukraine is Trump, not because he?s a humanitarian but because he see?s the inherent dangers of continuing, as well as the business opportunities if he befriends Russia and Nato. Trump unlike Biden is not supported by the oil and gas companies so he is unlikely to get elected. > The latest: > https://www.rt.com/russia/552987-top-russian-negotiator-ukraine-peace-deal/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=Email > > >> On Apr 3, 2022, at 6:56 PM, C. G. Estabrook wrote: >> >> I'll vote for any Republican (Trumpist or not) who'll reverse Biden's war policy and stop sending weapons to Ukraine. >> >> Zelenskyy must end the war by asking the Russians for terms. >> >> https://www.economist.com/by-invitation/2022/03/11/john-mearsheimer-on-why-the-west-is-principally-responsible-for-the-ukrainian-crisis >> >> ?CGE >> >> >> > From carl at newsfromneptune.com Mon Apr 4 02:06:35 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 3 Apr 2022 21:06:35 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: The Cradle References: <6249e4468b443_42ae1ba88c5a41288f9@7558675b-e76c-46b4-9b7d-5c0a056d0b01.mail> Message-ID: <4C7BBA48-B2D9-412E-9B39-8E3D400FCDC8@newsfromneptune.com> Sent from my iPhone Begin forwarded message: > From: The Cradle > Date: April 3, 2022 at 1:17:26 PM CDT > To: galliher at illinois.edu > Subject: The Cradle > > ? > > View online > > The Cradle > @TheCradleMedia > One Site, West Asia. > > Exclusives > > Imran Khan takes on America > After a humiliating defeat in Afghanistan and loss of credibility over Ukraine, the era of US unipolarity seems to be entering its terminal phase, marked by lashing out ferociously in all directions. The most recent of these offensives occurred last week when the government of Pakistan alleged that Washington was trying to engineer regime change [?] > thecradle.co > > Blood and oil: why Saudi Arabia will be bombed until the siege on Yemen is lifted > Overshadowed by events in Ukraine and elsewhere, the devastating war in Yemen is now in its seventh year. However, increasingly strategic attacks by the Yemeni resistance movement Ansarallah ? combined with the oil production standoff between Washington and Riyadh ? may bring Yemen into the spotlight again and highlight its bitter fight to lift the [?] > thecradle.co > > ?Rublegas:? the world?s new resource-based reserve currency > Saddam, Gaddafi, Iran, Venezuela ? they all tried but couldn?t do it. But Russia is on a different level altogether. The beauty of the game-changing, gas-for-rubles, geoeconomic jujitsu applied by Moscow is its stark simplicity. Russian President Vladimir Putin?s presidential decree on new payment terms for energy products, predictably, was misunderstood by the collective west. [?] > thecradle.co > > How Mariupol will become a key hub of Eurasian integration > Mariupol, the strategic Sea of Azov port, remains in the eye of the storm in Ukraine. The NATO narrative is that Azovstal ? one of Europe?s biggest iron and steel works ? was nearly destroyed by the Russian Army and its allied Donetsk forces who ?lay siege? to Mariupol. The true story is that the [?] > thecradle.co > > Will Lebanon?s Arab tribes fill Saudi Arabia?s ?Hariri void? in upcoming elections? > Leaders of Lebanon?s Arab Tribes are to participate in the country?s upcoming parliamentary elections alongside the right-wing Christian Lebanese Forces Party (LF), allegedly based on orders by Saudi Arabia. Sheikh Jasem Al-Askar, head of the Arab Tribes Federation in Lebanon, is considered one of the most prominent players within the clans, and has strong relations with Saudi [?] > thecradle.co > > An Arab-Israeli ?NATO? to confront Iran will be dead on arrival > Of the three summits held in the past five days in the Negev, Sharm el-Sheikh, and Aqaba, Israel?s was arguably the most prominent, with the aim of crowning it as a leader of the region and establishing an Arab-Israeli NATO equivalent ? a by-product of the Abraham Accords signed in 2020. The ?historic? summit held in [?] > thecradle.co > News > > Taliban bans the cultivation of opium, other narcotics > A ban on the cultivation of narcotics, including opium, in Afghanistan was issued by the Taliban on 3 April. ?As per the decree of the supreme leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, all Afghans are informed that from now on, cultivation of poppy has been strictly prohibited across the country,? stated the office of [?] > thecradle.co > > Iran slams new sanctions issued by the US as sign of ?malice? > On 30 March, the US issued a new round of sanctions against an Iranian businessman and several of his companies based on allegations that he is behind the procurement of supplies for Iran?s ballistic missile program. Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Saeed Khatibzadeh stated on 31 March that these new sanctions prove the US has ?ill [?] > thecradle.co > > OPEC+ abandons US-funded data as rift with the west grows > The Joint Technical Committee (JTC) that advises the OPEC+ group of oil-producing countries will stop using energy policy data provided by the International Energy Agency (IEA), according to sources who spoke with Reuters. The Paris-based IEA, whose top financier is the US, advises western governments on energy policy. This latest rift between Washington and a [?] > thecradle.co > > Iranian oil exports up 40 percent since formation of latest government > The CEO of Iran?s National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC), Mohsen Khojasteh Mehr, said on 30 March that the Islamic Republic?s crude oil exports increased by 40 percent since the new administration came into office, despite a US campaign to seize Iranian oil tankers. ?We have exported more to some of the target countries than during [?] > thecradle.co > > New batch of ex-ISIS members transferred from Syria to Ukraine: Report > Dozens of extremist fighters have made their way from Syria?s northern Idlib governorate to Ukraine to fight against Russian troops, according to a report by Sputnik Arabic. At least 87 former members of ISIS were allegedly transferred to the Syrian-Turkish border on 26 March under the direct supervision of the leader of the Hayat Tahrir [?] > thecradle.co > > Targeted killings in Deraa leave 41 victims in one month > The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported on 1 April that 41 people have been killed in Deraa in the month of March in a continuous string of targeted attacks. SOHR released a report on 31 March that reveals 117 attacks that have left 97 people dead in Deraa since the beginning of this [?] > thecradle.co > > Palestinian baby dies waiting for Israeli medical permit > A Palestinian baby from Gaza died of complications during a five month wait for a special permit from Israeli authorities to leave the besieged strip for medical treatment. The 19-month-old Fatima al-Masri, born with a hole in her heart, was unable to attend various appointments for treatment at Al-Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem in late 2021 [?] > thecradle.co > > Iran-US matched for World Cup amid rising political tensions > The national teams of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the US will face each other on the football field at this year?s World Cup in Qatar. The two landed in Group B during the draw on 1 April and their match will take place on 21 November. The match has the potential to take [?] > thecradle.co > > Erdogan condemns Israel attacks in phone call with Herzog > According to Israeli media, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has condemned the recent attacks carried out in Israel, which left 11 Israelis dead. On 1 April, during a phone call with his Israeli counterpart, Isaac Herzog, Erdogan referred to the killings as ?terrorist? attacks and offered his condolences to Herzog. ?President Erdogan asked to send [?] > thecradle.co > > Oil ship seized by Saudi Arabia arrives in Yemen?s Hodeidah port > The Yemeni Petroleum Company (YPC) announced on 3 April that the Splendour Sapphire oil ship docked in the port of Hodeidah after being detained for 88 days by Saudi forces. ?The oil ship Splendour Sapphire has now arrived at the port of Hodeidah after being seized for 88 days, there are still three ships under [?] > thecradle.co > > Did you enjoy this issue? Yes No > > The Cradle @TheCradleMedia > One site, West Asia. > > In order to unsubscribe, click here. > If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here. > Created with Revue by Twitter. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Apr 5 14:16:22 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2022 09:16:22 -0500 Subject: [Peace] US weaponized Ukraine Message-ID: https://thegrayzone.com/2022/04/01/war-us-weaponized-ukraine-russia/ From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Apr 5 16:42:51 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2022 11:42:51 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Patient of D.C. abortionist leaves shocking Google Review asking if her baby survived abortion References: <1649176035841.f29e82d3-197d-43e4-91ef-590d14ca59de@bf10x.hubspotemail.net> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Live Action News > Subject: Patient of D.C. abortionist leaves shocking Google Review asking if her baby survived abortion > Date: April 5, 2022 at 11:30:51 AM CDT > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > Reply-To: info at liveaction.org > > > Hello Friend of Life, > > We hope that your Tuesday is off to a good start! > > Here are four of our top pro-life news articles for you: > > Patient of D.C. Abortionist Leaves Shocking Google Review Asking if Her Baby Survived Abortion > > ?I went in for a 3 day procedure and only went in for 1 day," she wrote. "I changed my mind...the items inserted had fell out so I took it as a sign to keep the baby." The horrific details that follow were written just prior to the news that pro-life activists had obtained the bodies of aborted children from the same facility. > Read more > > > Colorado Governor Signs ?Extreme? Bill, Making Abortion a State ?Right? > > > ?Under the rules proposed by this bill, if a child is delivered alive during an abortion the doctors are under no legal compulsion to provide standard medical care as they would in any other circumstance and attempt to preserve the child?s life,? said Live Action?s Director of Government Affairs, Noah Brandt. > Read more > > > Chris Rock and Other Comedians Point Out the Obvious: Abortion Kills Babies > > Rock joked about the idea that abortion could ever be safe, joining other abortion-supporting male comedians in pointing out the truth of what abortion is: homicide. > Read more > > > Mom Refuses Pressure to Abort Baby Girl With Spina Bifida: ?I Already Love Her? > > A toddler born with spina bifida is learning to walk and proving all the doctors wrong ? especially the ones who attempted to pressure her parents to have an abortion. > Read more > > > VIEW ALL RECENT NEWS > > Thank you for reading and we hope that you share these articles. We appreciate all that you do to protect the most vulnerable! > > For life, > > The Live Action News Team > > Live Action is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Gifts are tax-deductible in the United States. > No goods or services are offered or given in exchange for contributions. > > Make your gift here: give.liveaction.org > Live Action, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 102 PMB 111, Arlington, VA 22201, (510) 854-9867 > Unsubscribe Manage preferences -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Apr 5 23:57:52 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2022 18:57:52 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Shockingly enough, these Republicans have the better of the argument Message-ID: <2BED650C-7D5A-4141-A84C-80840A5CCF5D@newsfromneptune.com> https://www.thebulwark.com/whos-soft-on-russia-meet-the-republican-anti-ukraine-caucus/ ?CGE From davidgreen50 at gmail.com Wed Apr 6 00:02:47 2022 From: davidgreen50 at gmail.com (David Green) Date: Tue, 5 Apr 2022 19:02:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Shockingly enough, these Republicans have the better of the argument In-Reply-To: <2BED650C-7D5A-4141-A84C-80840A5CCF5D@newsfromneptune.com> References: <2BED650C-7D5A-4141-A84C-80840A5CCF5D@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: The Bulwark William Kristol, Editor-at-Large On Tue, Apr 5, 2022, 6:58 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > https://www.thebulwark.com/whos-soft-on-russia-meet-the-republican-anti-ukraine-caucus/ > > ?CGE > _______________________________________________ > 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 Thu Apr 7 18:05:32 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2022 13:05:32 -0500 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_=5Bmarxmail=5D_Ukraine_and_Palestine=3A?= =?utf-8?q?_It=E2=80=99s_the_hypocrisy_for_me?= References: Message-ID: <9CFD52D3-F3D7-485D-86DA-BF57E5ABA15E@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Dennis Brasky" > Subject: [marxmail] Ukraine and Palestine: It?s the hypocrisy for me > Date: April 7, 2022 at 12:45:28 PM CDT > To: "marxmail at groups.io Group Moderators" > Reply-To: marxmail at groups.io > > > > > > > Dear Friend, > > > It?s hard to draw any hope from the scenes of destruction and death in the Ukraine right now, but readers know I?m a glass half-full type so here I go. > > > Russia?s invasion of the Ukraine and the international response are an opportunity for Americans who care about Palestine. Many of us have cheered on the American sanctions. I certainly have. I want the Russian aggression to end, and refugees to be allowed to return. > > > And we know that the parallels to American and Israeli human rights violations are glaringly obvious. And they?re being pointed out. > > > Mondoweiss has always, always, called out Israeli human rights violations. Can you give today to make sure we can keep doing so? > > Every time we?ve seen denunciations of attacks on Mariupol and Kiev, we think about American ?shock and awe? unleashed on innocent Iraqis. Every time we hear justifications for Ukrainian resistance against a military occupation, we wonder, when did Palestinians ever get such grace from the mainstream media? And every time we see reporters nod in commiseration with Ukrainian refugees who can?t wait to get back to their homes, we think, what about the Palestinians? They?ve had this desire ? and right ? for more than 70 years. And when is that right ever honored in the mainstream press? > > > Of course the hypocrisy is bottomless. We can?t expect that to end any time soon. > > > What we can hope for is that the language of human rights will flourish, and the enlightened will see the glaring contradictions in U.S. foreign policy: justifying the bombings of urban neighborhoods in Gaza and Yemen while condemning the same conduct in the Ukraine. I?ve seen that these contradictions have triggered mockery and contempt for American foreign policy around the world, and in the Middle East. > > > And we?ve told that story every way we know how since Mondoweiss?s inception. Can you give today to help keep us at the forefront at this exciting moment when we may be able to shift the public understanding of what?s at stake? > > I'm not cynical, I am hopeful - because I can't remember a time when the ideals of pluralism, human rights, and international law have been more elevated in mainstream discourse. And I certainly can't remember a time when, in essence, a global corporate and governmental BDS movement was not only contemplated, but mobilized in a matter of weeks. We cannot miss the challenge this poses to Israel's apologists, or our opportunity to make the connections. > > > I am hopeful because there is now a strong but embattled discourse in the west that insists on naming apartheid in Israel. That discourse wasn?t nearly so prevalent ten years ago or thirty. Now it is established and it?s here to stay. It has won the campuses, it is aimed at Capitol Hill. > > > We have been a proud part of that discussion going back to the Iraq war, when the United States decided to destroy Baghdad to save it. We?ve made great personal sacrifices to promote that vision of human rights over 16 years, and we?re not going away. > > > Even as we mourn and protest the assault on Ukrainian civilians, we can say that we are consistent in our convictions. And affirm that this awareness will turn to Israel too. > > > Please give today to keep that vision strong as we continue the fight! > > Thanks, > > > Phil Weiss, Founder and Senior Editor > > > > > P.O. Box 442380, Detroit, MI 48244 > > > > > _._,_._,_ > Groups.io Links: > You receive all messages sent to this group. > > View/Reply Online (#15842) | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute This Topic | New Topic > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. > Your Subscription | Contact Group Owner | Unsubscribe [carl at newsfromneptune.com] > _._,_._,_ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Apr 7 20:34:56 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2022 16:34:56 -0400 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?=5BPeace-discuss=5D_Fwd=3A_=5Bmarxmail=5D_Ukra?= =?utf-8?q?ine_and_Palestine=3A_It=E2=80=99s_the_hypocrisy_for_me?= In-Reply-To: <9CFD52D3-F3D7-485D-86DA-BF57E5ABA15E@newsfromneptune.com> References: <9CFD52D3-F3D7-485D-86DA-BF57E5ABA15E@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: The most important thing we could do about this is force votes in Congress on U.S. support for the Israeli occupation. That's how we changed the discourse on Yemen. We forced votes in Congress. This isn't pie in the sky. It's close, it's on the horizon. Last year Jamaal Bowman introduced an amendment to NDAA on Syria War Powers, U.S. military has to get out of Syria unless Congress authorizes it. House Democratic leadership didn't want to allow a vote. Bowman said: ok, if you don't allow a vote on my amendment, me and my friends are going to vote with the House Republicans to take down the rule on the bill. He got his vote. This could happen this year on Israel-Palestine. The Squad, Justice Democrats would just have to make it a priority. Introduce an amendment attacking some particularly egregious aspect of Israeli apartheid, like knocking down Palestinian houses in Area C. Force a vote. It would be world-historical. On Thu, Apr 7, 2022 at 2:11 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > Begin forwarded message: > > *From: *"Dennis Brasky" > *Subject: **[marxmail] Ukraine and Palestine: It?s the hypocrisy for me* > *Date: *April 7, 2022 at 12:45:28 PM CDT > *To: *"marxmail at groups.io Group Moderators" > *Reply-To: *marxmail at groups.io > > > [image: Mondoweiss - News and Opinion about Palestine, Israel, and the >> United States] >> >> >> >> [image: Image] >> >> Dear Friend, >> >> >> It?s hard to draw any hope from the scenes of destruction and death in >> the Ukraine right now, but readers know I?m a glass half-full type so here >> I go. >> >> >> Russia?s invasion of the Ukraine and the international response are an >> opportunity for Americans who care about Palestine. Many of us have cheered >> on the American sanctions. I certainly have. I want the Russian aggression >> to end, and refugees to be allowed to return. >> >> >> And we know that the parallels to American and Israeli human rights >> violations are glaringly obvious. And they?re being pointed out. >> >> >> *Mondoweiss has always, always, called out Israeli human rights >> violations. Can you give today to make sure we can keep doing so?* >> >> >> >> Every time we?ve seen denunciations of attacks on Mariupol and Kiev, we >> think about American ?shock and awe? unleashed on innocent Iraqis. Every >> time we hear justifications for Ukrainian resistance against a military >> occupation, we wonder, when did Palestinians ever get such grace from the >> mainstream media? And every time we see reporters nod in commiseration with >> Ukrainian refugees who can?t wait to get back to their homes, we think, >> what about the Palestinians? They?ve had this desire ? and right ? for more >> than 70 years. And when is that right ever honored in the mainstream press? >> >> >> *Of course the hypocrisy is bottomless. We can?t expect that to end any >> time soon.* >> >> >> What we can hope for is that the language of human rights will flourish, >> and the enlightened will see the glaring contradictions in U.S. foreign >> policy: justifying the bombings of urban neighborhoods in Gaza and Yemen >> while condemning the same conduct in the Ukraine. I?ve seen that these >> contradictions have triggered mockery and contempt for American foreign >> policy around the world, and in the Middle East. >> >> >> *And we?ve told that story every way we know how since Mondoweiss?s >> inception. Can you give today to help keep us at the forefront at this >> exciting moment when we may be able to shift the public understanding of >> what?s at stake?* >> >> >> >> I'm not cynical, I am *hopeful* - because I can't remember a time when >> the ideals of pluralism, human rights, and international law have been more >> elevated in mainstream discourse. And I certainly can't remember a time >> when, in essence, a global corporate and governmental BDS movement was not >> only contemplated, but mobilized in a matter of weeks. *We cannot miss >> the challenge this poses to Israel's apologists, or our opportunity to make >> the connections.* >> >> >> I am hopeful because there is now a strong but embattled discourse in the >> west that insists on naming apartheid in Israel. That discourse wasn?t >> nearly so prevalent ten years ago or thirty. Now it is established and it?s >> here to stay. It has won the campuses, it is aimed at Capitol Hill. >> >> >> We have been a proud part of that discussion going back to the Iraq war, >> when the United States decided to destroy Baghdad to save it. We?ve made >> great personal sacrifices to promote that vision of human rights over 16 >> years, and we?re not going away. >> >> >> Even as we mourn and protest the assault on Ukrainian civilians, we can >> say that we are consistent in our convictions. And affirm that this >> awareness will turn to Israel too. >> >> >> *Please give today to keep that vision strong as we continue the fight! >> * >> >> >> Thanks, >> >> Phil Weiss, *Founder and Senior Editor* >> >> >> [image: Mondoweiss] >> >> >> P.O. Box 442380, Detroit, MI 48244 >> >> >> _._,_._,_ > ------------------------------ > Groups.io Links: > > You receive all messages sent to this group. > > View/Reply Online (#15842) | Reply > To Group > > | Reply To Sender > > | Mute This Topic | New Topic > > ------------------------------ > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. > ------------------------------ > Your Subscription | Contact > Group Owner | Unsubscribe > [ > carl at newsfromneptune.com] > _._,_._,_ > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 Thu Apr 7 23:07:15 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2022 18:07:15 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: angry and heartbroken over this References: <1649367573190.8d24739b-d052-454c-8a07-1aa33485f552@bf10x.hubspotemail.net> Message-ID: <5DCD1520-03C7-48F6-8ED6-8AD244E3B333@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Lila Rose > Subject: angry and heartbroken over this > Date: April 7, 2022 at 4:52:34 PM CDT > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > Reply-To: lila.rose at liveaction.org > > Friend of Life, > > I?m heartbroken and angry over what recently happened in Washington D.C. > > If you haven?t yet heard, the mangled remains of five precious babies were discovered by pro-life activists, all connected with known and ?proud? abortionist Cesare Santangelo. > > The images of these five babies show the naked bodies of nearly full-term infants, dumped as "medical waste" from Santangelo?s facility. Medical experts confirm it appears that these children may have been killed after they were born alive, or were the victims of illegal partial-birth abortions. > > The pain is devastating. > > Just miles from the White House, innocent children are being slaughtered?and the abortionist responsible for their deaths is still at large, even though we KNOW his name. He MUST be brought to justice if we want to save future children. > > Friend of Life, will you help us demand justice and expose this evil?Your gift to Live Action today will spread this story and activate thousands to call for an investigation into the deaths of these 5 children: https://give.liveaction.org/ensure-justice-for-the-five/?type=0&amount=25 > > The city government is still refusing to take action to investigate the killing of these five innocent babies, some of whom may have been murdered in violation of state and federal law. > > Their inaction is inexcusable. > > We must do everything in our power to obtain justice for these children and prevent abortionist Santangelo from killing more. > > Crimes against children like these CANNOT be allowed to stand in our country, but they will remain and spread until we do something to stop them. > > Friend, your immediate action is CRITICAL to ensuring that this abortionist?s crimes are exposed and he is brought to justice. > > Years ago, Live Action documented Santangelo admitting on tape that he would not save the lives of infants born alive in his facility, although he is required to do so by law. > > Live Action is on the front-lines of the fight against the killing of preborn children. Please make a gift to help us continue to expose the brutality of abortion: https://give.liveaction.org/ensure-justice-for-the-five/?type=0&amount=25 > > Through your gift today, you will ensure that we can direct our full attention to exposing the crimes of abortionists who violate the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban Act and the Born Alive Protection Act. We will not rest until Congress and the city of D.C. takes action. > > Doctors who have seen pictures of these kids conclude that they may have been killed AFTER BIRTH. This would be a direct violation of federal law. > > Your gift right now will help us demand that the police and medical examiner conduct a full investigation into the deaths of these children and then that they are laid to rest with dignity and given a proper burial. > > You will also change hearts and mind on abortion and infanticide so that our culture says NO MORE to the killing of the innocent. > > Please do not delay. Here?s your exclusive link to make your gift and demand justice for these 5 precious babies: https://give.liveaction.org/ensure-justice-for-the-five/?type=0&amount=25 > > For life, > > Lila Rose > President and Founder > > > Live Action is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. Gifts are tax-deductible in the United States. > No goods or services are offered or given in exchange for contributions. > > Make your gift here: give.liveaction.org > Live Action, 2200 Wilson Blvd., Suite 102 PMB 111, Arlington, VA 22201, (510) 854-9867 > Unsubscribe Manage preferences -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Apr 9 13:05:04 2022 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (karen aram) Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2022 08:05:04 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Pretty good stance for a try anti-imperialist left In-Reply-To: References: <60EC4176-64CD-4A85-A0D2-443DA51C6A0C@gmail.com> Message-ID: As to a plan, this organization, please see the below, appears to be on the right page so far. Their focus isn?t just anti-war which is a lost cause these days, if one doesn't know the history they won?t understand or recognize the solution, this group has included the 2nd. worse disaster facing humanity, global warming. I hope and recommend they continue to organize and add poverty at some point, which requires a class analysis, and includes the lack of healthcare, affordable housing, decent wages, jobs, etc. As I said previously, our system and institutions are so broken and corrupt what we need is structural system change, that recognition will only come about when people are united rather than divided as they have been on the various issues. Event by Veterans for Peace Milwaukee Chapter 102 , Veterans For Peace and Peace Action of Wisconsin Group ? Climate Crisis and Militarism The Climate Crisis and Militarism: an Earth Day Presentation by Garett Reppenhagen, Executive Director of national Veterans for Peace Veterans for Peace Climate Crisis and Militarism Project is part of the world-wide movement to end the climate crisis and promote climate, environmental, racial, and economic justice. US militarism, the single largest institutional source of greenhouse gasses on the planet, fuels the climate crisis. The solution requires the US military to step back from its doctrine of Full Spectrum Dominance, including reducing the unsustainable annual military budget; closing military bases around the world; de-militarizing US foreign policy; and redirecting funds towards mitigating the climate crisis. Garett Reppenhagen is the son of a Vietnam Veteran and grandson of two World War II Veterans. He served in the U.S. Army as a Cavalry/Scout Sniper in the 1st Infantry Division. Garett completed a deployment in Kosovo on a 9-month peace-keeping mission and a combat tour in Baquaba, Iraq. Garett gained an Honorable Discharge in May of 2005 and began working as a veterans advocate and a dedicated activist. He served as the Chairman of the Board of Iraq Veterans Against the War, worked in Washington, DC, as a lobbyist and as Vice President of Public Relations for the Nobel Prize winning Veterans For America, as a Program Director for Veterans Green Jobs and was the Rocky Mountain Director for Vet Voice Foundation. Garett lives in Maine where he serves as the Executive Director for Veterans For Peace PEACE ACTION OF WI ZOOM ONE CLICK JOIN one click join https://us02web.zoom.us/j/7165675210... zoom id is 716 567 5210 password: 178153 plain old phone: 1-312-626-6799 zoom id: 716 567 5210 password: 178153 .https://www.veteransforpeace.org/take-action/climatecrisis Presented by Milwaukee Veterans for Peace & Peace Action WI > On Apr 8, 2022, at 9:15 PM, karen aram wrote: > > Robert > > Why, are we disturbing you? > Do you own the Peace Discuss List? > Do you have a plan to do anything to prevent WW3? > Do you really think we are ignorant and don?t know what the USG is doing now that we need you to inform us? > > If you have a plan, please let us hear it? > > > >> On Apr 8, 2022, at 8:36 PM, Robert Naiman > wrote: >> >> I wasn't addressing you specifically. I'd like to know if there's a single person here who is jabbering about Russia-Ukraine who has a plan to do anything about it. >> >> >> >> On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 7:51 PM karen aram > wrote: >> I?m sorry Robert, I wasn?t speaking to you, and deliberately deleted you from the conversation. >> >> Please don?t address me again. >> >> >> >>> On Apr 8, 2022, at 5:45 PM, Robert Naiman > wrote: > >>> > Here's some data on the U.S. government. > > 1. This is roughly the same Congress that impeached Trump for delaying the shipment of Javelin missiles to Ukraine. Not stopping. Delaying. Under Congressional pressure, Trump sent the Javelins. This Congress impeached him anyway. That was before Russia invaded Ukraine, before the 24/7 U.S. media focus on Russian atrocities in Ukraine, before Ukraine surprised everyone by putting up a much stronger fight against Russia than expected, before Germany surprised everyone by responding much more aggressively than anyone expected, doing things they've refused to do for years. > > 2. All the sanctions on Russia Biden is proposing are flying through Congress. The Senate vote to revoke Russia's most-favored-nation trade status was 100-0. Even Rand Paul voted for it. > > What's the plan to change U.S. policy on this, when the bipartisan support in Congress for what Biden is doing is wall-to-wall? When from the point of view of people with power in Washington, current U.S. policy is working for them beyond their wildest dreams? >>> >>> On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 6:01 PM karen aram via Peace-discuss > wrote: >>> Mark, out of the three is the best source for internal Russian obstacles/problems but does it matter? Understanding our government and it?s internal conditions and contradictions seem to me to be most important, as we should be considering how to change our behavior. >>> >>> Sorry, about the Mark Sleboda link not working. Try this one: https://video.search.yahoo.com/yhs/search?fr=yhs-trp-001&ei=UTF-8&hsimp=yhs-001&hspart=trp&p=the+grayzone+project+with+mark+sleboda&type=Y143_F163_201897_102620#id=2&vid=16c587674d7cf42400567ead360a7e19&action=click >>> >>>> On Apr 8, 2022, at 3:56 PM, Morton K. Brussel > wrote: >>>> >>>> A rather (over) sanguine view from Pepe Escobar. Whether Russia can overcome its internal obstacles/problems and fulfill the scenario described is debatable. Expertise of the internal conditions in Russia is needed! >>>> >>>> Mar Slebota?s piece was not available at the link given. Curious. >>>> >>>>> On Apr 8, 2022, at 11:23 AM, karen aram > wrote: >>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Scott Ridder >>>>> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdM5Pkyl0_8 >>>>> >>>>> Mark Sleboda >>>>> https://thegrayzone.com/.../04/war-ukraine-unipolar-world/ >>>>> >>>>> and Pepe Escobar >>>>> offer similar assessments of what has taken place and what?s to come. >>>>> Pepe not a military analyst, as are Scott and Mark, is a geopolitical journalist and has been predicting for seven years now, what?s to come. >>>>> >>>>> From Pepe: >>>>> >>>>> UKRAINE AFTER THE WAR >>>>> Mariupol was battered by Ukraine?s right-wing Azov battalion well before Moscow launched its military ops. In Russian hands, this strategic steelworks port can transform into a hub of Eurasian connectivity. >>>>> Mariupol, the strategic Sea of Azov port, remains in the eye of the storm in Ukraine. >>>>> The NATO narrative is that Azovstal ? one of Europe?s biggest iron and steel works ? was nearly destroyed by the Russian Army and its allied Donetsk forces who ?lay siege? to Mariupol. >>>>> The true story is that the neo-Nazi Azov batallion took scores of Mariupol civilians as human shields since the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, and retreated to Azovstal as a last stand. After an ultimatum delivered last week, they are now being completely exterminated by the Russian and Donetsk forces and Chechen Spetsnaz. >>>>> Azovstal, part of the Metinvest group controlled by Ukraine?s wealthiest oligarch, Rinat Akhmetov, is indeed one of the biggest metallurgic plants in Europe, self-described as a ?high-performance integrated metallurgical enterprise that produces coke and sinter, steel as well as high-quality rolled products, bars and shapes.? >>>>> Amidst a flurry of testimonials detailing the horrors inflicted by the Azov neo-Nazis on Mariupol?s civilian population, a way more auspicious, invisible story bodes well for the immediate future. >>>>> Russia is the world?s fifth largest steel producer, apart from holding huge iron and coal deposits. Mariupol ? a steel Mecca ? used to source coal from Donbass, but under de facto neo-Nazi rule since the 2014 Maidan events, was turned into an importer. Iron, for instance, started to be supplied from Krivbas in Ukraine, over 200 kilometers away. >>>>> After Donetsk solidifies itself as an independent republic or, via referendum, chooses to become part of the Russian Federation, this situation is bound to change. >>>>> Azovstal is invested in a broad product line of very useful stuff: structural steel, rail for railroads, hardened steel for chains, mining equipment, rolled steel used in factory apparatus, trucks and railroad cars. Parts of the factory complex are quite modern while some, decades old, are badly in need of upgrading, which Russian industry can certainly provide. >>>>> Strategically, this is a huge complex, right at the Sea of Azov ? which is now, for all practical purposes, incorporated into the Donetsk People?s Republic, and close to the Black Sea. That implies a short trip to the Eastern Mediterranean, including many potential customers in West Asia. And crossing Suez and reaching the Indian Ocean, customers all across South and Southeast Asia. >>>>> So the Donetsk People?s Republic, possibly part of the future Novorossiya, and even part of Russia, will be in control of a lot of steel-making capacity for southern Europe, West Asia and beyond. >>>>> One of the inevitable consequences is that it will be able to supply a real freight railroad construction boom in Russia, China and the Central Asian ?stans.? Railroad construction happens to be the privileged connectivity mode for Beijing?s ambitious Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). And, crucially, of the increasingly turbo-charged International North South Transportation Corridor (INSTC). >>>>> So, mid-term, Mariupol should expect to become one of the key hubs of a boom in north-south routes ? INSTC across Russia and linking with the ?stans? ? as well as major BRI upgrades east-west as well as sub-BRI corridors. >>>>> Interlocked Eurasia >>>>> The INSTC?s main players are Russia, Iran and India ? which are now, pos-NATO sanctions, in advanced interconnection mode, complete with devising mechanisms to bypass the US dollar in their trade. Azerbaijan is another important INSTC player, yet more volatile because it privileges Turkey?s connectivity designs in the Caucasus. >>>>> The INSTC network will be progressively interconnecting also with Pakistan ? and that means the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a key BRI hub, which is slowly but surely expanding to Afghanistan. Foreign Minister Wang Yi?s impromptu visit to Kabul late last week was to advance the incorporation of Afghanistan to the New Silk Roads. >>>>> All that is happening as Moscow ? extremely close to New Delhi ? is simultaneously expanding trade relations with Islamabad. All three, crucially, are Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) members. >>>>> So the grand North-South design spells out fluent connectivity from the Russian mainland to the Caucasus (Azerbaijan), to West Asia (Iran) all the way to South Asia (India and Pakistan). None of these key players have demonized or sanctioned Russia despite ongoing US pressures to do so. >>>>> Strategically, that represents the Russian multipolar concept of Greater Eurasian Partnership in action in terms of trade and connectivity ? in parallel and complimentary with BRI because India, eager to install a rupee-ruble mechanism to buy energy, in this case is an absolutely crucial Russia partner, matching China?s reported $400 billion strategic deal with Iran. In practice, the Greater Eurasia Partnership will facilitate smoother connectivity between Russia, Iran, Pakistan and India. >>>>> The NATO universe, meanwhile, is congenitally incapable of even recognizing the complexity of the alignment, not to mention analyze its implications. What we have is the interlocking of BRI, INTSC and the Greater Eurasia Partnership on the ground ? all notions that are regarded as anathema in the Washington Beltway. >>>>> All that of course is being designed amidst a game-changing geoeconomic moment, as Russia, starting this Thursday, will only accept payment for its gas in rubles from ?unfriendly? nations. >>>>> Parallel to the Geater Eurasia Partnership, BRI, since it was launched in 2013, is also progressively weaving a complex, integrated Eurasian network of partnerships ? financial/economic, connectivity, physical infrastructure building, economic/trade corridors. BRI?s role as a co-shaper of institutions of global governance, including normative foundations, has also been crucial, much to the despair of the NATO alliance. >>>>> Time to de-westernize >>>>> Yet only now the Global South, especially, will start to observe the full spectrum of the China-Russia play across the Eurasian sphere. Moscow and Beijing are deeply involved in a joint drive to de-westernize globalist governance, if not shatter it altogether. >>>>> Russia from now on will be even more meticulous in its institution-building, coalescing the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU), the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) ? a Eurasian military alliance of select post-Soviet states ? in a geopolitical context of irreversible institutional and normative divide between Russia and the West. >>>>> At the same time, the Greater Eurasia Partnership will be solidifying Russia as the ultimate Eurasian bridge, creating a common space across Eurasia which could even ignore vassalized Europe. >>>>> Meanwhile in real life, BRI, as much as the INSTC, will be increasingly plugged into the Black Sea (hello, Mariupol). And BRI itself may be even prone to re-evaluation in its emphasis of linking western China to western Europe?s shrinking industrial base. >>>>> There will be no point in privileging the northern BRI corridors ? China-Mongolia-Russia via the Trans-Siberian, and the Eurasian land bridge via Kazakhstan ? when you have Europe descending into medieval dementia. >>>>> BRI?s renewed focus will be on gaining access to irreplaceable commodities ? and that means Russia ? as well as securing essential supplies for Chinese production. Commodity-rich nations such as Kazakhstan, and many players in Africa, shall become the top future markets for China. >>>>> In a pre-Covid loop across Central Asia, one constantly heard that China builds plants and high-speed railways while Europe at best writes white papers. It can always get worse. The EU as occupied American territory is now descending, fast, from center of global power to the status of inconsequential peripheral player, a mere struggling market in the far periphery? of China?s ?community of shared destiny.? >>>>> >>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> On Fri, Apr 8, 2022 at 6:54 AM karen aram via Peace-discuss > wrote: >>>>>> To be clear in my statement below, I?m not suggesting we do nothing, I?m suggesting just focusing on anti-war is a lost cause. >>>>>> >>>>>> It?s time we recognize the many issues in relation to imperialism, poverty, racism etc., require structural system change. We can?t rely upon our elected officials to represent us. >>>>>> >>>>>> The end of the petrodollar is here, the violence and chaos that we saw in Portland, O. will be seen across the nation when people take to the streets because they are starving. >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Apr 7, 2022, at 6:12 PM, karen aram > wrote: >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Mort >>>>>>> >>>>>>> An excellent article, one with which I couldn?t agree more. Only one statement is questionable, >>>>>>> >>>>>>> "the politicians in the US are very, very concerned about what we may think ? our words do have an effect, albeit limited one. That is the reason the US has no draft.? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I don?t believe our politicians are concerned about what we may think, that was the case in the sixties and seventies, but no longer. The invasion of Iraq, went ahead in spite of over 100,000 people in the streets protesting at the time. We?ve had how many wars and interventions since? >>>>>>> >>>>>>> I?ve come to the conclusion that unless a Republican is in the WH, we won?t see a viable anti-war movement in the US. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> Sorry, I know I?m not offering hope, but maybe I?m wrong. >>>>>>> >>>>>>> On Apr 7, 2022, at 4:56 PM, Morton K. Brussel > wrote: >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> This article gives one some hope. Meanwhile, so-called anti-war groups including CodePink, DemocracyNow(?)(disgusting treatment), fail to see the forest through the trees (or don?t want to). . >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> https://original.antiwar.com/john-v-walsh/2022/04/06/an-antidote-to-the-split-in-the-us-peace-movement-anti-interventionism/ >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> Most of the commentary for Walsh?s piece is also useful (on Antiwar.com .) >>>>>>>> >>>>>>>> ?mkb >>>>>>> >>>>>> >>>>>> _______________________________________________ >>>>>> Peace-discuss mailing list >>>>>> Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net >>>>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss >>>>> >>>> >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> 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 Apr 9 19:51:46 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2022 14:51:46 -0500 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_The_United_States_and_Ukraine_Started_t?= =?utf-8?q?he_War=E2=80=94Not_Russia?= References: <290d7f9f719af49a4fc45a1b5.128a66b559.20220409165841.dc949d3801.3732e0c6@mail117.atl91.mcsv.net> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: CovertAction Magazine > Subject: The United States and Ukraine Started the War?Not Russia > Date: April 9, 2022 at 11:58:54 AM CDT > To: > Reply-To: CovertAction Magazine > > CovertAction Magazine > Exposing Covert Action Since 1978 > > > The United States and Ukraine Started the War?Not Russia > By Richard Ochs on Apr 09, 2022 12:06 pm > For eight years, Ukraine terrorized the people of Eastern Ukraine with U.S. weapons but this was never reported on. > > Here is a timeline of events: > October 2002 ? ?Full Spectrum Dominance? declared by the Pentagon to rule the world. > January 2014 ? U.S. military trainers arrive in Ukraine. [1] <> > February 2014 ? Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych was overthrown in a violent coup. > March 2014 - Ukraine started the war and killed 10,000 Russian-speakers in Eastern Ukraine. > February 2015 ? Ceasefire agreements at Minsk were violated by Kyiv, continuing war. > May 2019 ? Volodymyr Zelensky was elected president of Ukraine after false peace promise. > May 2019 ? U.S. Rand Corp. think tank issued a manifesto to destroy Russia.[2] <> > March 2021 - Russian troops appeared at the Ukrainian border. > Feb. 17, 2022 ? Ukraine attacked a kindergarten in Donetsk, blaming Donbass separatists.[3] <> > Feb. 21, 2022 ? Kyiv increased its shelling of Donbass by a factor of 100 within four days. [4] <> > February 21, 2022 ? Russia recognized independence of Donetsk and Luhansk. > February 22, 2022 ? Donetsk reported intelligence that Ukraine planned invasion of Donbass [5] <> > The democratically elected government of Ukraine, overthrown by a U.S.-supported violent coup in 2014, was sparked by a massacre of protesters by a renegade Nazi brigade in the Ukraine Army, a cynical and deliberate false-flag tactic to anger the population. It worked as well as the German Nazi false flag Reichstag Fire that allowed Hitler to take over Germany.[6]? <>[?] > > The post The United States and Ukraine Started the War?Not Russia appeared first on CovertAction Magazine . > > > Read in browser ? > In Peace and Solidarity, > Chris Agee > Executive Editor > CovertAction Magazine > > > > Copyright ? 2022 CovertAction Magazine, All rights reserved. > Subscribers 2022 > > Our mailing address is: > CovertAction Magazine > 55 Gerard St # 1323 > Huntington, NY 11743-8252 > > Add us to your address book > > Want to change how you receive these emails? > You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list . > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Sat Apr 9 20:08:32 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Sat, 9 Apr 2022 16:08:32 -0400 Subject: [Peace] Yemen Champ @RoKhanna Bashes NAFTA in IL. He Running for POTUS? In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please vote in the poll. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/9/2091026/-Yemen-Champ-RoKhanna-Bashes-NAFTA-in-IL-He-Running-for-POTUS *Yemen Champ @RoKhanna Bashes NAFTA in IL. He Running for POTUS?* Look what our friend @RoKhanna is doing! He?s in Illinois, the Land of Lincoln, ?by the rivers gently flowing,? near the City of the Big Shoulders, in America?s industrial heartland, bashing NAFTA and trade with China . All good stuff, of course. Red meat for the BernieBros. Especially the ones from Illinois, who spent Quality Time with the locked-out Staley workers in Decatur . But Curious Minds want to know: what does this have to do with @RoKhanna?s export-oriented, high-tech, Silicon Valley House district in California? Is someone we know thinking about running for POTUS in 2024 if Biden doesn?t run for re-election, as many Democrats think he won?t ? While, of course, plausibly denying all previous denials , as one does? [?Only the true Messiah denies his divinity ,? as they say.] Now, I know what you?re thinking. You?re thinking: ?But Bob! What does this have to do with the BernieRo-Jayapal-DeFazio Yemen War Powers Resolution ? What does this have to do with ending the Yemen war?? Well, first, let?s look at this juncture from the vantage point of the interests of people trying to pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution and end the Yemen war. When we?re trying to end a war in the U.S. political system, it never hurts to Hitch Our Wagon to a Star. That?s why long-haired hippie anti-war activists went ?Clean for Gene? for Eugene McCarthy against LBJ in 1968, to end the Vietnam War. That?s why we knocked on doors for Dennis Kucinich in Ames, Iowa in 2004, to end the Iraq war. ?If it was wrong to go, it?s wrong to stay!? That?s why we knocked on doors in Connecticut for Ned Lamont against Joe Lieberman in August 2006, to end the Iraq war. That?s why we knocked on doors for Obama in Indiana against Hillary-McCain in 2008, to end the Iraq war and prevent the Iran war. That?s why we knocked on doors for Bernie with Keith Ellison in Waterloo, Iowa in 2016, why we made seven BernieJourneys to New Hampshire in 2020, why we made five JamaalJourneys to New York City to defeat #EndlessWar House Foreign Affairs Chair Eliot Engel. To end the U.S. wars and prevent new ones. If we want to shut down the Yemen war for good, it sure wouldn?t hurt to have a Presidential candidate who?s been our Champion on Yemen War Powers since before he introduced the first Yemen War Powers Resolution in 2017, who was the first House member to go after the unconstitutional Pentagon refueling of Saudi warplanes bombing Yemen in the middle of their bombing runs. As Father of our Constitution James Madison wrote in Federalist 51 , ?Ambition must be made to counteract ambition,? to serve the public interest. Now let?s look at the juncture from the vantage point of the interests of @RoKhanna. Suppose that @RoKhanna is thinking about running for POTUS in 2024 if Biden doesn?t run for re-election, despite plausibly denying all previous denials, as one does. He?s going to want to have a Signature Foreign Policy Accomplishment. Like - for example - passing the Yemen War Powers Resolution , getting Biden to sign it, and ending the Yemen war for good. When Uncle Bernie ran for POTUS in 2016, whenever U.S. political journalists tried to change the channel from Bernie Agenda to U.S. foreign policy, Uncle Bernie would immediately try to change the channel back to Bernie Agenda. The Serious Journalists who care about U.S. foreign policy did not approve of that at all. Team Bernie took big hits in the Lamestream Media for that. So, as Bernie was preparing to run for POTUS again in 2020, he was shopping around for a Foreign Policy Thing he could trot out when some Serious Journalist asked him what his foreign policy was. As good fortune would have it, around that time some BernieBros were working with @RoKhanna on the Yemen War Powers Resolution in the House. And getting shut down by House leadership, as usual. So the BernieBros trying to end the Yemen war went to Bernie and said: ?We heard you?re looking for a Foreign Policy Thing to show the Lamestream Media that you have a foreign policy. We?ve got a Yemen War Powers Resolution we?re working on with @RoKhanna in the House. We?re getting shut down by the House leadership - as usual - and we don?t have a Senate sponsor yet. Would you like to take our Yemen War Powers Resolution for a spin in the Senate?? It was like peanut butter and chocolate. One hand washes the other. Ambition must serve the public interest. So suppose @RoKhanna passes the Yemen War Powers Resolution , gets Biden to sign it, ends the Yemen war. That would be a damn good credential for POTUS, don?t you think? Then, when the Serious Journalists demand to know what his Serious Foreign Policy Credentials are, @RoKhanna can say, ?Well, I ended the Yemen war. What is that, chopped liver?? OK, so it?s not inventing the internet. But saving starving Yemeni children from Saudi-imposed famine would give him some serious bragging rights. ?Ain?t braggin? if it?s true.? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sun Apr 10 18:56:52 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2022 13:56:52 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: [marxmail] The Ukraine War: Dilemma for the U.S. Left | David M. Kotz | Democratic Left References: <16809.1649614970061129339@groups.io> Message-ID: <81FE77CD-2E6F-4D20-87CB-2E9C615B4BB6@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Roger Kulp" > Subject: Re: [marxmail] The Ukraine War: Dilemma for the U.S. Left | David M. Kotz | Democratic Left > Date: April 10, 2022 at 1:22:50 PM CDT > To: marxmail at groups.io > Reply-To: marxmail at groups.io > > Some of you might want to hear Scott Ritter's take on Ukraine. > https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OdM5Pkyl0_8 > _._,_._,_ > Groups.io Links: > You receive all messages sent to this group. > > View/Reply Online (#15926) | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute This Topic | New Topic > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. > Your Subscription | Contact Group Owner | Unsubscribe [carl at newsfromneptune.com] > _._,_._,_ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Sun Apr 10 19:05:00 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2022 14:05:00 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: The Cradle References: <62531dad6fea3_42b1aae7fe5c4531b6@e7c164e7-ced0-42a6-9d8b-a129f3fe1ae3.mail> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: The Cradle > Subject: The Cradle > Date: April 10, 2022 at 1:12:28 PM CDT > To: galliher at illinois.edu > > > View online > > The Cradle > @TheCradleMedia > One Site, West Asia. > > Exclusives > > Sit back and watch Europe commit suicide > The stunning spectacle of the European Union (EU) committing slow motion hara-kiri is something for the ages. Like a cheap Kurosawa remake, the movie is actually about the US-detonated demolition of the EU, complete with the rerouting of some key Russian commodities exports to the US at the expense of Europeans ? > By Pepe Escobar? > thecradle.co > > Yemen?s Hadi has no ?power? to bestow on the new presidential council > The significance of the newly established Presidential Leadership Council, which was formally declared on 7 March by the exiled Yemeni President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, lies in the unification of most, if not all, of Yemen?s political and tribal factions who oppose the Ansarallah resistance movement and the National Salvation Government (NSG) it leads in Sanaa ? By Abdel Bari Atwan? > thecradle.co > > Israel and Turkey:?a return to opportunism > Last Friday, ahead of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan and the Jewish holiday of Passover, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog and ?sharply condemned? Palestinian attacks that have killed 11 Israelis over the past two weeks ? > By Erman ?ete? > thecradle.co > > US ousts Imran Khan but his revolutionary narrative endures > Last Wednesday, during a meeting with Pakistan?s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in the Tunxi city of eastern China?s Anhui province, China?s State Councilor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the thoughtful remark that there was a need to ?to guard against the negative spillover effects of the Ukraine crisis? in the Asian region: ?We ? > By MK Bhadrakumar? > thecradle.co > News > Pakistani PM ousted from office by no-confidence vote > Only a few minutes after midnight on 10 April, the parliament of Pakistan held a no-confidence vote to oust Prime Minister Imran Khan. The vote was held successfully, with the majority of votes in favor of ousting Khan from office. Out of 342 members of parliament (MP), 174 voted in favor of ousting Khan, only [?] > thecradle.co > Iraqi resistance refuses to disarm until full US withdrawal: PMU chief > The Iraqi Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), also known as Hashd al-Shaabi, announced that they will not disarm nor cease operations until the complete withdrawal of US forces from Iraqi soil, according to the head of the PMU in a televised interview on 8 April. PMU chief Falih al-Fayyadh stipulated in an interview with Iraqi TV [?] > thecradle.co > Twitter suspends Arabic-language account of Yemeni armed forces spokesperson > Twitter has suspended the Arabic-language account of Yemeni armed forces spokesperson Yahya Saree on 9 April. The account had over 300,000 followers and provided the Yemeni perspective on the military equation in the face of the US-backed, Saudi-led aggression that has been ongoing since 2015. Saree?s English-language account still exists as of the time of [?] > thecradle.co > Turkey approves transfer of Khashoggi murder case to Saudi Arabia > A Turkish court ruled on 7 March to end the trial in absentia of the 26 Saudi suspects implicated in the killing of columnist Jamal Khashoggi, and to transfer the case to Riyadh. The move comes as Turkey attempts to mend its ties with the kingdom. ?Making the decision to halt [the trial] is against [?] > thecradle.co > Iraqi Kurdistan president linked to money laundering scheme in the US: Report > The president of the semi-autonomous Iraqi Kurdistan Region (IKR), Nechirvan Barzani, has been linked to a money laundering scheme in the US involving secret investments worth hundreds of millions. According to an investigation by The American Prospect, the Barzani family, founders of the Kurdish Democratic Party (KDP), have stashed their wealth in secret overseas properties, [?] > thecradle.co > Yemen?s ousted president gives up power to Saudi-appointed transitional council > The ousted ex-president of Yemen, Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi, has ceded his claim to power and agreed to support a so-called ?presidential council,? an unelected body appointed by Saudi Arabia. The move by Hadi came on 7 April after he dismissed former vice president Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar. ?I delegate to the Presidential Leadership Council my full [?] > thecradle.co > Former air force chief says Israel has lost superiority over Lebanese skies > Israel no longer enjoys superiority and freedom over the skies of Lebanon, according to the outgoing Israeli Air Force chief Amikam Norkin. Speaking to the Kan public broadcaster on 5 April, Norkin stated this reality has been apparent to the Israeli military establishment after Hezbollah unsuccessfully attempted to down an Israeli drone almost one year [?] > thecradle.co > Israeli forces killed 78 Palestinian children last year > On 5 April, the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS) revealed that 78 Palestinian children under the age of 18 were killed in the Gaza Strip and the occupied West Bank in 2021. Statistics show that since the year 2000, Israeli occupation forces have killed 2,203 Palestinian children. According to records released by the Defense [?] > thecradle.co > Saudi-led coalition has dropped over three million cluster bombs on Yemen > More than three million cluster bombs have been dropped in Yemen by the Saudi-led coalition since the war started in March 2015, according to Ali Safra, the director general of the Yemen Executive Mine Action Center (YEMAC). At a ceremony in Sanaa to mark International Mine Awareness Day on 5 April, Safra outlined how cluster [?] > thecradle.co > Prince Hamzah bin Hussein of Jordan relinquishes royal title > The half-brother of King Abdullah of Jordan announced the relinquishment of his royal title on 3 April. Prince Hamzah bin Hussein made the announcement on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/HSuet5cpht ? Hamzah bin AlHussein (@HamzahHKJ) April 3, 2022 The statement explains that the decision was based on ?current approaches, policies and methods of our institutions? that could not [?] > thecradle.co > > Did you enjoy this issue? Yes No > > The Cradle @TheCradleMedia > One site, West Asia. > In order to unsubscribe, click here . > If you were forwarded this newsletter and you like it, you can subscribe here . > Created with Revue by Twitter . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From kmedina67 at gmail.com Mon Apr 11 00:26:17 2022 From: kmedina67 at gmail.com (Karen Medina) Date: Sun, 10 Apr 2022 19:26:17 -0500 Subject: [Peace] hear from those directly impacted by Education Justice Project / April 11-14, 2022 Message-ID: Education Justice Project?s first ever Impact Week from Monday to Thursday of the week--April 11 - 14, 2022. Each evening features a different EJP speaker and goes from 7:30 - 8:30pm. Please join us! The perspectives of those who are directly impacted by our work are so valuable, and help put all we do in perspective. The events are free and you can sign up here: https://ejpimpactweek.wixsite.com/2022 * During the week of April 11 - 14, 2022, we will host four evenings of unique conversations over Zoom with no cost to participate. Each evening is devoted to a topic that will be led by an alumnus host. Conversations will be limited to 15 spots, and there will be space for a Q&A and small group discussion during the event. * Come and learn how EJP makes a difference and how you can support and participate in our work! Seating is limited, register now! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Wed Apr 13 18:38:04 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 13:38:04 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Western Dissent from US/NATO Policy on Ukraine is Small, Yet the Censorship Campaign is Extreme References: <20220413144513.3.129681c596f0cd3f@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: <019BE724-4F6E-4351-9FF0-E0C5AEBA41C9@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Glenn Greenwald > Subject: Western Dissent from US/NATO Policy on Ukraine is Small, Yet the Censorship Campaign is Extreme > Date: April 13, 2022 at 9:45:13 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: Glenn Greenwald > > > Western Dissent from US/NATO Policy on Ukraine is Small, Yet the Censorship Campaign is Extreme > Preventing populations from asking who benefits from a protracted proxy war, and who pays the price, is paramount. A closed propaganda system achieves that. > Apr 13 > > The Google logo seen on a cellphone with a background saying 'censored'. (Photo by Guillaume Payen/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) > If one wishes to be exposed to news, information or perspective that contravenes the prevailing US/NATO view on the war in Ukraine, a rigorous search is required. And there is no guarantee that search will succeed. That is because the state/corporate censorship regime that has been imposed in the West with regard to this war is stunningly aggressive, rapid and comprehensive. > > On a virtually daily basis, any off-key news agency, independent platform or individual citizen is liable to be banished from the internet. In early March, barely a week after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the twenty-seven nation European Union ? citing "disinformation? and ?public order and security? ? officially banned the Russian state-news outlets RT and Sputnik from being heard anywhere in Europe. In what Reuters called ?an unprecedented move,? all television and online platforms were barred by force of law from airing content from those two outlets. Even prior to that censorship order from the state, Facebook and Google were already banning those outlets, and Twitter immediately announced they would as well, in compliance with the new EU law. > > But what was ?unprecedented? just six weeks ago has now become commonplace, even normalized. Any platform devoted to offering inconvenient-to-NATO news or alternative perspectives is guaranteed a very short lifespan. Less than two weeks after the EU's decree, Google announced that it was voluntarily banning all Russian-affiliated media worldwide, meaning Americans and all other non-Europeans were now blocked from viewing those channels on YouTube if they wished to. As so often happens with Big Tech censorship, much of the pressure on Google to more aggressively censor content about the war in Ukraine came from its own workforce: ?Workers across Google had been urging YouTube to take additional punitive measures against Russian channels.? > > So prolific and fast-moving is this censorship regime that it is virtually impossible to count how many platforms, agencies and individuals have been banished for the crime of expressing views deemed "pro-Russian.? On Tuesday, Twitter, with no explanation as usual, suddenly banned one of the most informative, reliable and careful dissident accounts, named ?Russians With Attitude.? Created in late 2020 by two English-speaking Russians, the account exploded in popularity since the start of the war, from roughly 20,000 followers before the invasion to more than 125,000 followers at the time Twitter banned it. An accompanying podcast with the same name also exploded in popularity and, at least as of now, can still be heard on Patreon . > > > What makes this outburst of Western censorship so notable ? and what is at least partially driving it ? is that there is a clear, demonstrable hunger in the West for news and information that is banished by Western news sources, ones which loyally and unquestioningly mimic claims from the U.S. government, NATO, and Ukrainian officials. As The Washington Postacknowledged when reporting Big Tech's ?unprecedented? banning of RT, Sputnik and other Russian sources of news: ?In the first four days of Russia?s invasion of Ukraine, viewership of more than a dozen Russian state-backed propaganda channels on YouTube spiked to unusually high levels.? > > Note that this censorship regime is completely one-sided and, as usual, entirely aligned with U.S. foreign policy. Western news outlets and social media platforms have been flooded with pro-Ukrainian propaganda and outright lies from the start of the war. A New York Times article from early March put it very delicately in its headline: ?Fact and Mythmaking Blend in Ukraine?s Information War.? Axios was similarly understated in recognizing this fact : ?Ukraine misinformation is spreading ? and not just from Russia.? Members of the U.S. Congress have gleefully spread fabrications that went viral to millions of people, with no action from censorship-happy Silicon Valley corporations. That is not a surprise: all participants in war use disinformation and propaganda to manipulate public opinion in their favor, and that certainly includes all direct and proxy-war belligerents in the war in Ukraine. > > Yet there is little to no censorship ? either by Western states or by Silicon Valley monopolies ? of pro-Ukrainian disinformation, propaganda and lies. The censorship goes only in one direction: to silence any voices deemed ?pro-Russian,? regardless of whether they spread disinformation. The "Russians With Attitude? Twitter account became popular in part because they sometimes criticized Russia, in part because they were more careful with facts and viral claims that most U.S. corporate media outlets, and in part because there is such a paucity of outlets that are willing to offer any information that undercuts what the U.S. Government and NATO want you to believe about the war. > > Their crime, like the crime of so many other banished accounts, was not disinformation but skepticism about the US/NATO propaganda campaign. Put another way, it is not ?disinformation" but rather viewpoint-error that is targeted for silencing. One can spread as many lies and as much disinformation as one wants provided that it is designed to advance the NATO agenda in Ukraine (just as one is free to spread disinformation provided that its purpose is to strengthen the Democratic Party, which wields its majoritarian power in Washington to demand greater censorship and commands the support of most of Silicon Valley ). But what one cannot do is question the NATO/Ukrainian propaganda framework without running a very substantial risk of banishment. > > It is unsurprising that Silicon Valley monopolies exercise their censorship power in full alignment with the foreign policy interests of the U.S. Government. Many of the key tech monopolies ? such as Google and Amazon ? routinely seek and obtain highly lucrative contracts with the U.S. security state , including both the CIA and NSA. Their top executives enjoy very close relationships with top Democratic Party officials. And Congressional Democrats have repeatedly hauled tech executives before their various Committees to explicitly threaten them with legal and regulatory reprisals if they do not censor more in accordance with the policy goals and political interests of that party. > > But one question lingers: why is there so much urgency about silencing the small pockets of dissenting voices about the war in Ukraine? This war has united the establishment wings of both parties and virtually the entire corporate media with a lockstep consensus not seen since the days and weeks after the 9/11 attack. One can count on both hands the number of prominent political and media figures who have been willing to dissent even minimally from that bipartisan Washington consensus ? dissent that instantly provokes vilification in the form of attacks on one's patriotism and loyalties . Why is there such fear of allowing these isolated and demonized voices to be heard at all? > > The answer seems clear. The benefits from this war for multiple key Washington power centers cannot be overstated. The billions of dollars in aid and weapons being sent by the U.S. to Ukraine are flying so fast and with such seeming randomness that it is difficult to track. ?Biden approves $350 million in military aid for Ukraine,? Reuters said on February 26; ?Biden announces $800 million in military aid for Ukraine,? announced The New York Times on March 16; on March 30, NBC's headline read: ?Ukraine to receive additional $500 million in aid from U.S., Biden announces?; on Tuesday, Reuters announced:? ?U.S. to announce $750 million more in weapons for Ukraine, officials say." By design, these gigantic numbers have long ago lost any meaning and provoke barely a peep of questioning let alone objection. > > It is not a mystery who is benefiting from this orgy of military spending. On Tuesday, Reuters reported that ?the Pentagon will host leaders from the top eight U.S. weapons manufacturers on Wednesday to discuss the industry's capacity to meet Ukraine's weapons needs if the war with Russia lasts years.? Among those participating in this meeting about the need to increase weapons manufacturing to feed the proxy war in Ukraine is Raytheon, which is fortunate to have retired General Lloyd Austin as Defense Secretary, a position to which he ascended from the Raytheon Board of Directors . It is virtually impossible to imagine an event more favorable to the weapons manufacturer industry than this war in Ukraine: > > Demand for weapons has shot up after Russia's invasion on Feb. 24 spurred U.S. and allied weapons transfers to Ukraine. Resupplying as well as planning for a longer war is expected to be discussed at the meeting, the sources told Reuters on condition of anonymity. . . > > Resupplying as well as planning for a longer war is expected to be discussed at the meeting. . . . The White House said last week that it has provided more than $1.7 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the invasion, including over 5,000 Javelins and more than 1,400 Stingers. > > This permanent power faction is far from the only one to be reaping benefits from the war in Ukraine and to have its fortunes depend upon prolonging the war as long as possible. The union of the U.S. security state, Democratic Party neocons, and their media allies has not been riding this high since the glory days of 2002. One of MSNBC's most vocal DNC boosters, Chris Hayes, gushed that the war in Ukraine has revitalized faith and trust in the CIA and intelligence community more than any event in recent memory ? deservedly so, he said : ?The last few weeks have been like the Iraq War in reverse for US intelligence.? One can barely read a mainstream newspaper or watch a corporate news outlet without seeing the nation's most bloodthirsty warmongering band of neocons ? David Frum, Bill Kristol, Liz Cheney, Wesley Clark, Anne Applebaum, Adam Kinzinger ? being celebrated as wise experts and heroic warriors for freedom. > > This war has been very good indeed for the permanent Washington political and media class. And although it was taboo for weeks to say so, it is now beyond clear that the only goal that the U.S. and its allies have when it comes to the war in Ukraine is to keep it dragging on for as long as possible. Not only are there no serious American diplomatic efforts to end the war, but the goal is to ensure that does not happen. They are now saying that explicitly, and it is not hard to understand why. > > The benefits from endless quagmire in Ukraine are as immense as they are obvious. The military budget skyrockets. Punishment is imposed on the arch-nemesis of the Democratic Party ? Russia and Putin ? while they are bogged down in a war from which Ukrainians suffer most. The citizenry unites behind their leaders and is distracted ... > Subscribe to Glenn Greenwald to read the rest. > Become a paying subscriber of Glenn Greenwald to get access to this post and other subscriber-only content. > > Subscribe > A subscription gets you: > > Subscriber-only posts and full archive > access to narrated versions of articles and video transcripts > Post comments and join the community > ? 2022 Glenn Greenwald Unsubscribe > 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Apr 13 19:57:01 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 15:57:01 -0400 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?If_the_Russian_War_on_Ukraine_is_=E2=80=9CGeno?= =?utf-8?q?cide=2C=E2=80=9D_the_Saudi_War_on_Yemen_is_=E2=80=9CGeno?= =?utf-8?b?Y2lkZeKAnQ==?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please vote in the poll. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/13/2091771/-If-the-Russian-War-on-Ukraine-is-Genocide-the-Saudi-War-on-Yemen-is-Genocide *If the Russian War on Ukraine is ?Genocide,? the Saudi War on Yemen is ?Genocide? * President Biden has crossed a rhetorical Rubicon in describing the illegal actions of Putin and his ?Willing Executioners? in Ukraine as ?genocide.? We can debate, if we want, whether President Biden?s description was ?technically accurate.? We can debate, if we want, whether that was a good idea that was in ?U.S. national interests,? whatever those are. We can debate, if we want, if this was yet another *so-called *?Biden gaffe.? But there ain?t no debatin? which side of this rhetorical Rubicon President Biden is standing on now on Russia-Ukraine. He?s standing on the ?genocide? side. All this, of course, begs a crucial ?Jeopardy Daily Double? question about U.S. democracy, the Rule of Law, and U.S. policy in the Middle East. If the last month of Russia?s war on Ukraine was ?genocide,? then *by what moral calculus *was the last seven years of U.S.-enabled, deliberate Saudi regime-imposed famine in Yemen not ?genocide?? Now, of course, some Blob Establishment Concern Troll might try to claim that ?deliberate Saudi-imposed famine in Yemen? is rhetorically excessive, beyond the pale. But if they did try to do that, then we could protect ourselves with an Impeccably-Credentialed Blob Establishment Validator. We could pull Marshall McLuhan from behind the movie poster in *Annie Hall*. On May 17, 2017, *Connecticut Democratic Senator Chris Murphy* made the following statement on the Senate floor: "The Saudis are deliberately trying to create a famine inside Yemen in order to essentially starve the Yemenis to the negotiating table.? Note that this was not Ilhan Omar, Dennis Kucinich, Ron Dellums, Mike Gravel, Wayne Morse, Walter Jones, Justin Amash, or Ron Paul. This was not the *People?s Daily World*, *Socialist Worker*, *In These Times*, *Jacobin*, *The Nation, Antiwar.com, *or *The American Conservative*. This was *Chris Murphy*. He?s universally considered ?Serious? by the ?Serious? Blob Establishment on U.S. foreign policy. He?s a member in good standing of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. He was on the ?short list? to become President Biden?s Secretary of State. But perhaps some Blob Establishment Concern Troll might try to claim: ?Well, that was on May 17, 2017. That?s Ancient History. Let's not bicker and argue about who killed who. ? But if they did try to claim that, it would just beg *yet another *?Jeopardy Daily Double? question about U.S. democracy, the Rule of Law, and U.S. policy in the Middle East. Suppose that this statement was true on May 17, 2017, when Democratic Senator and SFRC member in good standing Chris Murphy said it on the Senate floor. Suppose that it is not true today. On *exactly which day* did it stop being true? Surely not on January 20, 2021, the day that President Biden was inaugurated as POTUS. Surely not even a Blob Establishment Concern Troll would try to claim that. So let?s assume that this was all true then and remains all true today. Is there anything we can do about it? If there?s nothing we can do about it, what?s the point? ?At this point, what difference does it make?? We are all American Pragmatists now. We are all realists now. ?Politics is the art of the possible.? It?s not enough to be right. We need to have a ?theory of change.? But there *IS* something we can do about this. We can pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution now, and shut down unconstitutional U.S. participation in the Saudi regime-imposed famine in Yemen for good. This is not pie in the sky. Congress has passed a Yemen War Powers Resolution before. In our corner right now, we have Pramila Jayapal, chair of the Progressive Caucus. We have Peter DeFazio, chair of the House Transportation Committee. We have @RoKhanna, who some people claim might be the One . We have some Constitution-loyal House Republicans. And we have Uncle Bernie. What?s the excuse for inaction from the DC Beltway Excuse Factory now? Fulfill the promise of the Democratic Platform: ?Democrats will end support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen and help bring the war to an end.? Pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution now! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Apr 14 00:07:08 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 19:07:08 -0500 Subject: [Peace] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war Message-ID: https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Apr 14 01:35:21 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 13 Apr 2022 21:35:21 -0400 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping us "repair the world" now? On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > _______________________________________________ > 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 Thu Apr 14 06:44:28 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2022 01:44:28 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Watkins? account of the analyses and plans of the actual combatants - the US and Russia - can help to chart a way out of the quagmire. Instead of providing more weapons or - even worse - a no-fly zone, the US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire. But Washington seems criminally willing to fight to the last Ukrainian to produce maximum damage to Russia and Putin. US citizens must prevent that. ?CGE > On Apr 13, 2022, at 8:35 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping us "repair the world" now? > > > > On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Apr 14 06:47:16 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2022 01:47:16 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <31EF7218-CB6C-48F8-AFA0-671141B28C7F@newsfromneptune.com> Watkins? account of the analyses and plans of the actual combatants - the US and Russia - can help to chart a way out of the quagmire. Instead of providing more weapons or - even worse - a no-fly zone, the US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire. But Washington seems criminally willing to fight to the last Ukrainian to produce maximum damage to Russia and Putin. US citizens must prevent that. ?CGE > On Apr 13, 2022, at 8:35 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping us "repair the world" now? > > > > On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > On Apr 13, 2022, at 8:35 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping us "repair the world" now? > > > > On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > _______________________________________________ > Peace-discuss mailing list > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Apr 14 15:09:15 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:09:15 -0400 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 2:44 AM C. G. Estabrook wrote: > Watkins? account of the analyses and plans of the actual combatants - the > US and Russia - can help to chart a way out of the quagmire. > > Instead of providing more weapons or - even worse - a no-fly zone, the US > must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire. > The probability of a "no-fly zone" is zero. "the US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire" - regardless of whether this would be a moral course of action, the probability of this happening is zero. > But Washington seems criminally willing to fight to the last Ukrainian to > produce maximum damage to Russia and Putin. > The Ukrainians and the East Europeans are way more adamant about this than Biden is. That's a key reason that the "theory of change" presented here makes no sense. Biden is not pushing Ukraine and the East Europeans to be more anti-Putin. It's the other way around. They're pushing Biden to be more aggressive. That's a key reason we can't plausibly do anything to stop this. Ukraine and the East Europeans are pushing Biden to be more aggressive, and CNN is looping Russian atrocities in Ukraine 24/7. We have no political juice against this. We have no angle. We have no lever. As Dr. Shireen al-Adeimi says, "Yemen is the war we can stop." There's nothing we can do now to stop the Russian war on Ukraine. But we can stop the Saudi war on Yemen now. > > US citizens must prevent that. ?CGE > > > > On Apr 13, 2022, at 8:35 PM, Robert Naiman > wrote: > > > > Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping us > "repair the world" now? > > > > > > > > On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > > _______________________________________________ > > 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 Thu Apr 14 15:31:35 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:31:35 -0400 Subject: [Peace] 85% at Daily Kos: "Congress should pass Yemen WPR now" In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: I didn't even stuff the ballot box on this one like I usually do. I just hung it out there. Daily Kos = "Democrats." This is what "Democrats" think about this now. [image: image.png] https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/13/2091771/-If-the-Russian-War-on-Ukraine-is-Genocide-the-Saudi-War-on-Yemen-is-Genocide -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 68685 bytes Desc: not available URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Apr 14 15:38:26 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2022 10:38:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <132BFB00-ECB3-4788-AC0F-BA12ED8FCD70@newsfromneptune.com> The US government is providing arms and materiel to combatants in Ukraine and Yemen. We should insist that it stop doing so. ?CGE > On Apr 14, 2022, at 10:09 AM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > > On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 2:44 AM C. G. Estabrook wrote: > Watkins? account of the analyses and plans of the actual combatants - the US and Russia - can help to chart a way out of the quagmire. > > Instead of providing more weapons or - even worse - a no-fly zone, the US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire. > > The probability of a "no-fly zone" is zero. > > "the US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire" - regardless of whether this would be a moral course of action, the probability of this happening is zero. > > But Washington seems criminally willing to fight to the last Ukrainian to produce maximum damage to Russia and Putin. > > The Ukrainians and the East Europeans are way more adamant about this than Biden is. That's a key reason that the "theory of change" presented here makes no sense. Biden is not pushing Ukraine and the East Europeans to be more anti-Putin. It's the other way around. They're pushing Biden to be more aggressive. That's a key reason we can't plausibly do anything to stop this. Ukraine and the East Europeans are pushing Biden to be more aggressive, and CNN is looping Russian atrocities in Ukraine 24/7. We have no political juice against this. We have no angle. We have no lever. As Dr. Shireen al-Adeimi says, "Yemen is the war we can stop." There's nothing we can do now to stop the Russian war on Ukraine. But we can stop the Saudi war on Yemen now. > > > > > US citizens must prevent that. ?CGE > > > > On Apr 13, 2022, at 8:35 PM, Robert Naiman wrote: > > > > Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping us "repair the world" now? > > > > > > > > On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss wrote: > > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > > _______________________________________________ > > Peace-discuss mailing list > > Peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net > > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace-discuss > From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Apr 14 15:49:57 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 14 Apr 2022 11:49:57 -0400 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] newleftreview: watkins-an-avoidable-war In-Reply-To: <132BFB00-ECB3-4788-AC0F-BA12ED8FCD70@newsfromneptune.com> References: <132BFB00-ECB3-4788-AC0F-BA12ED8FCD70@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: In one case - Yemen - we have a very plausible story that we can succeed in this right now. In the other case - Ukraine - there is zero probability that we can succeed in this right now. Where should we put our focus? On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 11:38 AM C. G. Estabrook wrote: > The US government is providing arms and materiel to combatants in Ukraine > and Yemen. > > We should insist that it stop doing so. ?CGE > > > > On Apr 14, 2022, at 10:09 AM, Robert Naiman > wrote: > > > > > > On Thu, Apr 14, 2022 at 2:44 AM C. G. Estabrook < > carl at newsfromneptune.com> wrote: > > Watkins? account of the analyses and plans of the actual combatants - > the US and Russia - can help to chart a way out of the quagmire. > > > > Instead of providing more weapons or - even worse - a no-fly zone, the > US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire. > > > > The probability of a "no-fly zone" is zero. > > > > "the US must insist Ukraine accept Putin?s terms for a cease-fire" - > regardless of whether this would be a moral course of action, the > probability of this happening is zero. > > > > But Washington seems criminally willing to fight to the last Ukrainian > to produce maximum damage to Russia and Putin. > > > > The Ukrainians and the East Europeans are way more adamant about this > than Biden is. That's a key reason that the "theory of change" presented > here makes no sense. Biden is not pushing Ukraine and the East Europeans to > be more anti-Putin. It's the other way around. They're pushing Biden to be > more aggressive. That's a key reason we can't plausibly do anything to stop > this. Ukraine and the East Europeans are pushing Biden to be more > aggressive, and CNN is looping Russian atrocities in Ukraine 24/7. We have > no political juice against this. We have no angle. We have no lever. As Dr. > Shireen al-Adeimi says, "Yemen is the war we can stop." There's nothing we > can do now to stop the Russian war on Ukraine. But we can stop the Saudi > war on Yemen now. > > > > > > > > > > US citizens must prevent that. ?CGE > > > > > > > On Apr 13, 2022, at 8:35 PM, Robert Naiman > wrote: > > > > > > Of course it was an avoidable war. But how is this knowledge helping > us "repair the world" now? > > > > > > > > > > > > On Wed, Apr 13, 2022 at 8:07 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < > peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > > https://newleftreview.org/issues/ii133/articles/susan-watkins-an-avoidable-war > > > _______________________________________________ > > > 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 Fri Apr 15 19:04:02 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:04:02 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Exclusive: Russian Geoeconomics Tzar Sergey Glazyev Introduces the New Global Financial System References: <20220415140130.1.48A11E5C4001D099@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: <6771C0C3-EEEB-4FCC-A655-D12F766D0C2F@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Pepe Escobar / The Unz Review > Subject: Exclusive: Russian Geoeconomics Tzar Sergey Glazyev Introduces the New Global Financial System > 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 > Exclusive: Russian Geoeconomics Tzar Sergey Glazyev Introduces the New Global Financial System Pepe Escobar ? Thursday, April 14, 2022 ? 3,000 Words > Sergey Glazyev is a man living right in the eye of our current geopolitical and geoeconomic hurricane. One of the most influential economists in the world, a member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, and a former adviser to the Kremlin from 2012 to 2019, for the past three years he has helmed Moscow?s uber strategic portfolio as Minister in Charge of Integration and Macroeconomics of the Eurasia Economic Union (EAEU). > > Glazyev?s recent intellectual production has been nothing short of transformative, epitomized by his essay Sanctions and Sovereignty and an extensive discussion of the new, emerging geoeconomic paradigm in an interview to a Russian business magazine . > > In another of his recent essays , Glazyev comments on how ?I grew up in Zaporozhye, near which heavy fighting is now taking place in order to destroy the Ukrainian Nazis, who never existed in my small Motherland. I studied at a Ukrainian school and I know Ukrainian literature and language well, which from a scientific point of view is a dialect of Russian. I did not notice anything Russophobic in Ukrainian culture. In the 17 years of my life in Zaporozhye, I have never met a single Banderist.? > > Glazyev was gracious to take some time from his packed schedule to provide detailed answers to a first series of questions in what we expect to become a running conversation, especially focused to the Global South. This is his first interview with a foreign publication since the start of Operation Z. Many thanks to Alexey Subottin for the Russian-English translation. > > The Cradle: You are at the forefront of a game-changing geoeconomic development: the design of a new monetary/financial system via an association between the EAEU and China, bypassing the US dollar, with a draft soon to be concluded. Could you possibly advance some of the features of this system ? which is certainly not a Bretton Woods III ? but seems to be a clear alternative to the Washington consensus and very close to the necessities of the Global South? > > Glazyev: In a bout of Russophobic hysteria, the ruling elite of the United States played its last ?trump ace? in the hybrid war against Russia. Having ?frozen? Russian foreign exchange reserves in custody accounts of western central banks, financial regulators of the US, EU, and the UK undermined the status of the dollar, euro, and pound as global reserve currencies. This step sharply accelerated the ongoing dismantling of the dollar-based economic world order. > > Over a decade ago, my colleagues at the Astana Economic Forum and I proposed to transition to a new global economic system based on a new synthetic trading currency based on an index of currencies of participating countries. Later, we proposed to expand the underlying currency basket by adding around twenty exchange-traded commodities. A monetary unit based on such an expanded basket was mathematically modeled and demonstrated a high degree of resilience and stability. > > At around the same time, we proposed to create a wide international coalition of resistance in the hybrid war for global dominance that the financial and power elite of the US unleashed on the countries that remained outside of its control. My book The Last World War: the USA to Move and Lose, published in 2016, scientifically explained the nature of this coming war and argued for its inevitability ? a conclusion based on objective laws of long-term economic development. Based on the same objective laws, the book argued the inevitability of the defeat of the old dominant power. > > Currently, the US is fighting to maintain its dominance, but just as Britain previously, which provoked two world wars but was unable to keep its empire and its central position in the world due to the obsolescence of its colonial economic system, it is destined to fail. The British colonial economic system based on slave labor was overtaken by structurally more efficient economic systems of the US and the USSR. Both the US and the USSR were more efficient at managing human capital in vertically integrated systems, which split the world into their zones of influence. A transition to a new world economic order started after the disintegration of the USSR. This transition is now reaching its conclusion with the imminent disintegration of the dollar-based global economic system, which provided the foundation of the United States? global dominance. > > The new convergent economic system that emerged in the PRC (People?s Republic of China) and India is the next inevitable stage of development, combining the benefits of both centralized strategic planning and market economy, and of both state control of the monetary and physical infrastructure and entrepreneurship. The new economic system united various strata of their societies around the goal of increasing common wellbeing in a way that is substantially stronger than the Anglo-Saxon and European alternatives. This is the main reason why Washington will not be able to win the global hybrid war that it started. This is also the main reason why the current dollar-centric global financial system will be superseded by a new one, based on a consensus of the countries who join the new world economic order. > > In the first phase of the transition, these countries fall back on using their national currencies and clearing mechanisms, backed by bilateral currency swaps. At this point, price formation is still mostly driven by prices at various exchanges, denominated in dollars. This phase is almost over: after Russia?s reserves in dollars, euro, pound, and yen were ?frozen,? it is unlikely that any sovereign country will continue accumulating reserves in these currencies. Their immediate replacement is national currencies and gold. > > The second stage of the transition will involve new pricing mechanisms that do not reference the dollar. Price formation in national currencies involves substantial overheads, however, it will still be more attractive than pricing in ?un-anchored? and treacherous currencies like dollars, pounds, euro, and yen. The only remaining global currency candidate ? the yuan ? won?t be taking their place due to its inconvertibility and the restricted external access to the Chinese capital markets. The use of gold as the price reference is constrained by the inconvenience of its use for payments. > > The third and the final stage on the new economic order transition will involve a creation of a new digital payment currency founded through an international agreement based on principles of transparency, fairness, goodwill, and efficiency. I expect that the model of such a monetary unit that we developed will play its role at this stage. A currency like this can be issued by a pool of currency reserves of BRICS countries, which all interested countries will be able to join. The weight of each currency in the basket could be proportional to the GDP of each country (based on purchasing power parity, for example), its share in international trade, as well as the population and territory size of participating countries. > > In addition, the basket could contain an index of prices of main exchange-traded commodities: gold and other precious metals, key industrial metals, hydrocarbons, grains, sugar, as well as water and other natural resources. To provide backing and to make the currency more resilient, relevant international resource reserves can be created in due course. This new currency would be used exclusively for cross-border payments and issued to the participating countries based on a pre-defined formula. Participating countries would instead use their national currencies for credit creation, in order to finance national investments and industry, as well as for sovereign wealth reserves. Capital account cross-border flows would remain governed by national currency regulations. > > The Cradle: Michael Hudson specifically asks that if this new system enables nations in the Global South to suspend dollarized debt and is based on the ability to pay (in foreign exchange), can these loans be tied to either raw materials or, for China, tangible equity ownership in the capital infrastructure financed by foreign non-dollar credit? > > Glazyev: Transition to the new world economic order will likely be accompanied by systematic refusal to honor obligations in dollars, euro, pound, and yen. In this respect, it will be no different from the example set by the countries issuing these currencies who thought it appropriate to steal foreign exchange reserves of Iraq, Iran, Venezuela, Afghanistan, and Russia to the tune of trillions of dollars. Since the US, Britain, EU, and Japan refused to honor their obligations and confiscated wealth of other nations which was held in their currencies, why should other countries be obliged to pay them back and to service their loans? > > In any case, participation in the new economic system will not be constrained by the obligations in the old one. Countries of the Global South can be full participants of the new system regardless of their accumulated debts in dollars, euro, pound, and yen. Even if they were to default on their obligations in those currencies, this would have no bearing on their credit rating in the new financial system. Nationalization of extraction industry, likewise, would not cause a disruption. Further, should these countries reserve a portion of their natural resources for the backing of the new economic system, their respective weight in the currency basket of the new monetary unit would increase accordingly, providing that nation with larger currency reserves and credit capacity. In addition, bilateral swap lines with trading partner countries would provide them with adequate financing for co-investments and trade financing. > > The Cradle: In one of your latest essays, The Economics of the Russian Victory , you call for ?an accelerated formation of a new technological paradigm and the formation of institutions of a new world economic order.? Among the recommendations, you specifically propose the creation of ?a payment and settlement system in the national currencies of the EAEU member states? and the development and implementation of ?an independent system of international settlements in the EAEU, SCO and BRICS, which could eliminate critical dependence of the US-controlled SWIFT system.? Is it possible to foresee a concerted joint drive by the EAEU and China to ?sell? the new system to SCO members, other BRICS members, ASEAN members and nations in West Asia, Africa and Latin America? And will that result in a bipolar geoeconomy ? the West versus The Rest? > > Glazyev: Indeed, this is the direction where we are headed. Disappointingly, monetary authorities of Russia are still a part of the Washington paradigm and play by the rules of the dollar-based system, even after Russian foreign exchange reserves were captured by the west. On the other hand, the recent sanctions prompted extensive soul searching among the rest of the non-dollar-block countries. western ?agents of influence? still control central banks of most countries, forcing them to apply suicidal policies prescribed by the IMF. However, such policies at this point are so obviously contrary to the national interests of these non-western countries that their authorities are growing justifiably concerned about financial security. > > You correctly highlight potentially central roles of China and Russia in the genesis of the new world economic order. Unfortunately, current leadership of the CBR (Central Bank of Russia) remains trapped inside the intellectual cul-de-sac of the Washington paradigm and is unable to become a founding partner in the creation of a new global economic and financial framework. At the same time, the CBR already had to face the reality and create a national system for interbank messaging which is not dependent on SWIFT, and opened it up for foreign banks as well. Cross-currency swap lines have been already set up with key participating nations. Most transactions between member states of the EAEU are already denominated in national currencies and the share of their currencies in internal trade is growing at a rapid pace. > > A similar transition is taking place in trade with China, Iran, and Turkey. India indicated that it is ready to switch to payments in national currencies as well. A lot of effort is put in developing clearing mechanisms for national currency payments. In parallel, there is an ongoing effort to develop a digital non-banking payment system, which would be linked to gold and other exchange-traded commodities ? ?stablecoins.? > > Recent US and European sanctions imposed on the banking channels have caused a rapid increase in these efforts. The group of countries working on the new financial system only needs to announce the completion of the framework and readiness of the new trade currency and the process of formation of the new world financial order will accelerate further from there. The best way to bring it about would be to announce it at the SCO or BRICS regular meetings. We are working on that. > > The Cradle: This has been an absolutely key issue in discussions by independent analysts across the west. Was the Russian Central Bank advising Russian gold producers to sell their gold in the London market to get a higher price than the Russian government or Central Bank would pay? Was there no anticipation whatsoever that the coming alternative to the US dollar will have to be based largely on gold? How would you characterize what happened? How much practical damage has this inflicted on the Russian economy short-term and mid-term? > > Glazyev: The monetary policy of the CBR, implemented in line with the IMF recommendations, has been devastating for the Russian economy. Combined disasters of the ?freezing? of circa \$400 billion of foreign exchange reserves and over a trillion dollars siphoned from the economy by oligarchs into western offshore destinations, came with the backdrop of equally disastrous policies of the CBR, which included excessively high real rates combined with a managed float of the exchange rate. We estimate this caused under-investment of circa 20 trillion rubles and under-production of circa 50 trillion rubles in goods. > > Following Washington?s recommendations, the CBR stopped buying gold over the last two years, effectively forcing domestic gold miners to export full volumes of production, which added up to 500 tons of gold. These days the mistake and the harm it caused are very much obvious. Presently, the CBR resumed gold purchases, and, hopefully, will continue with sound policies in the interest of the national economy instead of ?targeting inflation? for the benefit of international speculators, as had been the case during the last decade. > > The Cradle: The Fed as well as the ECB were not consulted on the freeze of Russian foreign reserves. Word in New York and Frankfurt is that they would have opposed it were they to have been asked. Did you personally expect the freeze? And did the Russian leadership expect it? > > Glazyev: My book ?The Last World War? that I already mentioned, which was published as far back as 2015, argued that the likelihood of this happening eventually is very high. In this hybrid war, economic warfare and informational/cognitive warfare are key theaters of conflict. On both of these fronts, the US and NATO countries have overwhelming superiority and I did not have any doubt that they would take full advantage of this in due course. > > I have been arguing for a long time for replacement of dollars, euro, pounds, and yen in our foreign exchange reserves with gold, which is produced in abundance in Russia. Unfortunately, western agents of influence which occupy key roles at central banks of most countries, as well as rating agencies and key publications, were successful in silencing my ideas. To give you an example, I have no doubt that high-ranking officials at the Fed and the ECB were involved in developing anti-Russian financial sanctions. These sanctions have been consistently escalating and are being implemented almost instantly, despite the well-known difficulties with bureaucratic decision making in the EU. > > The Cradle: Elvira Nabiullina has been reconfirmed as the head of the Russian Central Bank. What would you do differently, compared to her previous actions? What is the main guiding principle involved in your different approaches? > > Glazyev: The difference between our approaches is very simple. Her policies are an orthodox implementation of IMF recommendations and dogmas of the Washington paradigm, while my recommendations are based on the scientific method and empirical evidence accumulated over the last hundred years in leading countries. > > The Cradle: The Russia-China strategic partnership seems to be increasingly ironclad ? as Presidents Putin and Xi themselves constantly reaffirm. But there are rumbles against it not only in the west but also in some Russian policy circles. In this extremely delicate historical juncture, how reliable is China as an all-season ally to Russia? > > Glazyev: The foundation of Russian-Chinese strategic partnership is common sense, common interests, and the experience of cooperation over hundreds of years. The US ruling elite started a global hybrid war aimed at defending its hegemonic position in the world, targeting China as the key economic competitor and Russia as the key counter-balancing force. Initially, the US geopolitical efforts were aiming to create a conflict between Russia and China. Agents of western influence were amplifying xenophobic ideas in our media and blocking any attempts to transition to payments in national currencies. On the Chinese side, agents of western influence were pushing the government to fall in line with the demands of the US interests. > > However, sovereign interests of Russia and China logically led to their growing strategic partnership and cooperation, in order to address common threats emanating from Washington. The US tariff war with China and financial sanctions war with Russia validated these concerns and demonstrated the clear and present danger our two countries are facing. Common interests of survival and resistance are uniting China and Russia, and our two countries are largely symbiotic economically. They complement and increase competitive advantages of each other. These common interests will persist over the long run. > > The Chinese government and the Chinese people remember very well the role of the Soviet Union in the liberation of their country from the Japanese occupation and in the post-war industrialization of China. Our two countries have a strong historical foundation for strategic partnership and we are destined to cooperate closely in our common interests. I hope that the strategic partnership of Russia and the PRC, which is enhanced by the coupling of the One Belt One Road with the Eurasian Economic Union, will become the foundation of President Vladimir Putin?s project of the Greater Eurasian Partnership and the nucleus of the new world economic order. > > > Unsubscribe From This Mailing List -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 15 19:06:02 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:06:02 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Good Friday Message-ID: <2434E7EA-1A73-4FDB-BEEC-FF985B5D222D@newsfromneptune.com> A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: mccabe-long sermon2.rtf Type: text/rtf Size: 60313 bytes Desc: not available URL: -------------- next part -------------- From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 15 19:07:22 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 14:07:22 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Siding with Ukraine's far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky's historic mandate for peace References: <20220415145239.3.a106c39dd0c0f505@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: <56A96BB0-E45E-4800-A0B5-0346646867AB@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Aaron Mat? from Aaron Mate > Subject: Siding with Ukraine's far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky's historic mandate for peace > Date: April 15, 2022 at 9:52:39 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: Aaron Mat? from Aaron Mate > > > Siding with Ukraine's far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky's historic mandate for peace > In 2019, Zelensky was elected on an overwhelming mandate to make peace with Russia. As Stephen F. Cohen warned that year, the US chose to side with Ukraine's far-right and fuel war. > > Aaron Mat? > Apr 15 > > Zelensky in his May 2019 inaugural address. (President.gov.ua ) > Subscribe now > On a warm October day in 2019, the eminent Russia studies professor Stephen F. Cohen and I sat down in Manhattan for what would be our last in-person interview (Cohen passed away in September 2020 at the age of 81 ). > > The House was gearing up to impeach Donald Trump for freezing weapons shipments to Ukraine while pressuring its government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The Beltway media was consumed with frenzy of a presidency in peril. But Professor Cohen, one of the leading Russia scholars in the United States, was concerned with what the impeachment spectacle in Washington meant for the long-running war between the US-backed Ukrainian government and Russian-backed rebels in the Donbas. > > At that point, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky was just months into an upstart presidency that he had won on a pledge to end the Donbas conflict. Instead of supporting the Ukrainian leader's peace mandate, Democrats in Congress were impeaching Trump for briefly impeding the flow of weapons that fueled the fight. As his Democratic allies now like to forget, President Obama refused to send these same weapons out of fear of prolonging the war and arming Nazis . By abandoning Obama?s policy, the Democrats, Cohen warned, threaten to sabotage peace and strengthen Ukraine's far-right. > > "Zelensky ran as a peace candidate," Cohen explained. "He won an enormous mandate to make peace. So, that means he has to negotiate with Vladimir Putin." But there was a major obstacle. Ukrainian fascists "have said that they will remove and kill Zelensky if he continues along this line of negotiating with Putin? His life is being threatened literally by a quasi-fascist movement in Ukraine." > > Peace could only come, Cohen stressed, on one condition. "[Zelensky] can?t go forward with full peace negotiations with Russia, with Putin, unless America has his back," he said. "Maybe that won?t be enough, but unless the White House encourages this diplomacy, Zelensky has no chance of negotiating an end to the war. So the stakes are enormously high." > > > Stephen F. Cohen in October 2019. > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > In October 2019, Stephen F. Cohen (RIP) implored DC to support Zelensky's peace mandate. > > "His life is being threatened by a quasi-fascist movement," Cohen said. "He can?t go forward with full peace negotiations unless America has his back." Siding with fascists, DC chose war. > > April 10th 2022 > > 114 Retweets225 Likes > > The subsequent impeachment trial, and bipartisan US policy since, has made clear that Washington has had no interest in having Zelensky's back, and every interest in fueling the Donbas war that he had been elected to end. The overwhelming message from Congress, fervently amplified across the US media (including progressive outlets) with next to no dissent, was that when it comes to Ukraine's civil war, the US saw Ukraine's far-right as allies, and its civilians as cannon fodder. > > The Ukrainian battle against Russian-backed rebels, State Department official and opening impeachment witness George Kent testified, was being waged by the "Ukrainian equivalent of our own Minutemen of 1776." In his opening statement at Trump's trial, Democratic impeachment manager Adam Schiff approvingly quoted another Kent line: "The United States aids Ukraine and her people, so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don?t have to fight Russia here." > > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > If you don?t want Russia to fight Ukraine over there, don?t use Ukraine to fight Russia from here. > > February 26th 2022 > > 3,237 Retweets8,482 Likes > > Although Trump's impeachment failed to remove him from office, it succeeded in cementing the proxy war aims of its chief proponents : rather than support Zelensky's peace mandate, Ukraine would instead be used to "fight Russia over there." > > In using Ukraine to bleed Russia, the US has showcased its contempt for everything in Ukraine that it claims to defend, namely its democracy and security. By treating Ukraine as a depot for US weapons, the US has joined Ukrainian fascists in sabotaging the 2015 Minsk accords that could have put an end to the civil war triggered by a US-backed coup the year prior . Minsk called for granting Ukraine's Russian-speaking population in the eastern Donbas limited autonomy and respect for their language. This prospect was a non-starter for the far-right nationalists and Nazis empowered by the 2014 US-backed Maidan coup. > > "The uncomfortable truth is that a sizeable portion of Kiev?s current government ? and the protesters who brought it to power ? are, indeed, fascists," two specialists with prominent Western think tanks wrote in Foreign Policy in March 2014 , one month after the coup. > > The fascists have blocked peace in the Donbas at every turn. When the Ukrainian government voted on a "special law" advancing the Minsk accords in August 2015, the Svoboda party and other far-right groups led violent clashes that killed three Ukrainian soldiers and left dozens wounded. Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who had signed Minsk at a time when President Obama was resisting heavy bipartisan pressure to arm Ukraine, got the message and refused to uphold Ukraine's end of the bargain. > > In April 2019, Zelensky was elected with an overwhelming 73% of the vote on a promise to turn the tide. In his inaugural address the next month , Zelensky declared that he was "not afraid to lose my own popularity, my ratings," and was "prepared to give up my own position ? as long as peace arrives." > > But Ukraine's powerful far-right and neo-Nazi militias made clear to Zelensky that reaching peace in the Donbas would have a much higher cost. > > "No, he would lose his life," Right Sector co-founder Dmytro Anatoliyovych Yarosh, then the commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, responded one week after Zelensky's inaugural speech . "He will hang on some tree on Khreshchatyk - if he betrays Ukraine and those people who died in the Revolution and the War." > > > May 2019 headline: ?Yarosh: if Zelensky betrays Ukraine, he will lose not his position, but his life? > Along with the threats to his life, Zelensky experienced direct obstacles to his peace mandate on multiple fronts. > > When Zelensky travelled to the Donbas in October 2019 to promote elections for the rebel-held areas, he was confronted by angry members of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion rallying under the slogan of "No to Capitulation." In one exchange caught on video, Zelensky sparred with an Azov member over the president's calls for a military drawdown. "I?m the president of this country. I?m 41 years old. I?m not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons," Zelensky pleaded. > > > Denis Rogatyuk > @DenisRogatyuk > #UkraineRussiaWar: This video is from 2019. It shows a confrontation between Zelensky and a member of Azov battalion in the Donbas region. Zelensky demands that the neo-nazis lay down their arms. The fighter refuses. > Zelensky is NOT running the show. The neo-nazis are. > > April 3rd 2022 > > 846 Retweets1,681 Likes > > But Zelensky met continued defiance. The same far-right forces set up an armed checkpoint to delay a Ukrainian military pullback. Thousands of far-right and nationalist protesters, cheered by the liberal intelligentsia and carrying flares as torches, also marched in Kiev. > When Zelensky's press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, "drew attention to the prevalence of civilian casualties" in the Donbas, "which she blamed on government forces? injudicious use of return fire," she was greeted instead with "a prosecutorial summons," Katharine Quinn-Judge of the International Crisis Group reported in April 2020, one year after Zelensky's election. Mendel's recognition of the suffering in the Donbas, Quinn-Judge observed, resulted from "Zelensky's campaign pledge to treat residents of Russia-backed enclaves more like full-fledged Ukrainians," ? a non-starter for the US-favored far-right nationalists, who harbored no such interest in Ukrainians' equality. > > Although Zelensky dithered on Minsk, he nonetheless continued talks on its implementation. The far-right continued to express its violent opposition at every turn, such as in August 2021, when at least eight police officers were wounded in armed protests outside the presidential offices. > > The far-right threats to Zelensky undoubtedly thwarted a peace agreement that could have prevented the Russian invasion. Just two weeks before Russia troops entered Ukraine, the New York Times noted that Zelensky "would be taking extreme political risks even to entertain a peace deal" with Russia, as his government "could be rocked and possibly overthrown" by far-right groups if he "agrees to a peace deal that in their minds gives too much to Moscow." > > Yuri Hudymenko, leader of the far-right Democratic Ax, even threatened Zelensky with an outright coup: "If anybody from the Ukrainian government tries to sign such a document, a million people will take to the streets and that government will cease being the government." > > Zelensky has clearly gotten the message. Instead of pursuing the peace platform that he was elected on, the Ukrainian President has instead made alliances with the Ukrainian far-right that violently opposed it. As recently as late January, amid last-chance talks to salvage the Minsk accords, Zelensky-appointed Ukrainian security chief Oleksiy Danilov instead pronounced that "the fulfillment of the Minsk agreement means the country?s destruction." At the final round of Minsk talks in February, just two weeks before Russia's invasion, a "key obstacle," the Washington Post reported , "was Kyiv?s opposition to negotiating with the pro-Russian separatists." > > Zelensky's acquiescence to Nazi forces was most recently underscored on April 7th, when an address to the Greek parliament was overshadowed by his airing of a video featuring a member of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion . > > "I think Zelensky found out very quickly that because of the Ukrainian right, it was impossible to implement Minsk II," John Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor who has warned for years that US policies were pushing Ukraine into a conflict with Russia, said in a public event the same day. "?Zelensky understands that he cannot take the Ukrainian right on by himself. So basically we have a situation where Zelensky is stymied." > > Echoing his late friend and colleague Stephen F. Cohen, Mearsheimer stressed the centrality of the US role. > > "The Americans will side with the Ukrainian right," Mearsheimer said. "Because the Americans, and the Ukrainian right, both do not want Zelensky cutting a deal with the Russians that makes it look like the Russians won. So this is the principal reason I'm very pessimistic about Ukraine's ability to help shut this one down." > > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > This week, John Mearsheimer, speaking to @KatrinaNation, noted the continued alliance between DC and Ukraine's far-right: > > "The Americans will side with the Ukrainian right... Both do not want Zelensky cutting a deal with the Russians that makes it look like the Russians won." > > April 10th 2022 > > 45 Retweets84 Likes > > While claiming to profess concern for Ukrainian lives, NATO policymakers have made plain their disregard for diplomacy. Instead, as retired senior US diplomat Chas Freeman recently told me , they have pursued a policy of fighting Russia "to the last Ukrainian." > > "Everything we are doing, rather than accelerate an end to the fighting and some compromise, seems to be aimed at prolonging the fighting," Freeman, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, among a number of other senior positions, said. > > Invoking Freeman's warning, Noam Chomsky concurs that US policy amounts to a "death warrant" for Ukraine. > > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > Chomsky cites my recent interview with veteran US diplomat Chas Freeman, who warned that US policy amounts to fighting Russia "to the last Ukrainian." ( > thegrayzone.com/2022/03/24/us-? > ) Flooding Ukraine with weapons & blocking diplomatic solutions is a "death warrant", Chomsky says. > > April 6th 2022 > > 764 Retweets1,646 Likes > > Indeed, on April 5, the Washington Post made clear the prevailing viewpoint in Washignton and Brussels: "For some in NATO, it?s better for the Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe." While rhetorically claiming to support Ukrainian agency, in reality, the Post added, "there are limits to how many compromises some in NATO will support to win the peace." This is undoubtedly the message being relayed to Zelensky from the White House in what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described as "near-daily contact" with Zelensky?s team about the negotiations with Russia. > > In sabotaging Zelensky's peace mandate to side with the Ukrainian far-right, the US pushed Ukraine into a calamity that Professor Cohen warned about nearly three years ago. > > "There were moments in history, political history, when there?s an opportunity that is so good and wise and so often lost, the chance," Cohen told me in October 2019. "So, the chance for Zelensky, the new president who had this very large victory, 70 plus percent to negotiate with Russia an end to that war, it?s got to be seized. And it requires the United States, basically, simply saying to Zelensky, 'Go for it, we?ve got your back.'" > > By choosing to ignore the pleas of lonely voices like Cohen to instead have the back of Ukraine's far-right, Washington sabotaged a historic peace mandate and helped provoke a catastrophic war. > > Share > Subscribe now > Like > Comment > Share > > To support Aaron Mat??s independent journalism, subscribe here: > > Subscribe now > Give a gift subscription > Share Aaron Mate > ? 2022 Aaron Mat? Unsubscribe > 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 15 20:57:22 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 15:57:22 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Siding with Ukraine's far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky's historic mandate for peace References: <20220415145239.3.a106c39dd0c0f505@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: <90E144B8-4159-4425-BD88-EF931968C8A2@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Aaron Mat? from Aaron Mate > Subject: Siding with Ukraine's far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky's historic mandate for peace > Date: April 15, 2022 at 9:52:39 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: Aaron Mat? from Aaron Mate > > > Siding with Ukraine's far-right, US sabotaged Zelensky's historic mandate for peace > In 2019, Zelensky was elected on an overwhelming mandate to make peace with Russia. As Stephen F. Cohen warned that year, the US chose to side with Ukraine's far-right and fuel war. > > Aaron Mat? > Apr 15 > > Zelensky in his May 2019 inaugural address. (President.gov.ua ) > Subscribe now > On a warm October day in 2019, the eminent Russia studies professor Stephen F. Cohen and I sat down in Manhattan for what would be our last in-person interview (Cohen passed away in September 2020 at the age of 81 ). > > The House was gearing up to impeach Donald Trump for freezing weapons shipments to Ukraine while pressuring its government to investigate Joe Biden and his son Hunter. The Beltway media was consumed with frenzy of a presidency in peril. But Professor Cohen, one of the leading Russia scholars in the United States, was concerned with what the impeachment spectacle in Washington meant for the long-running war between the US-backed Ukrainian government and Russian-backed rebels in the Donbas. > > At that point, Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky was just months into an upstart presidency that he had won on a pledge to end the Donbas conflict. Instead of supporting the Ukrainian leader's peace mandate, Democrats in Congress were impeaching Trump for briefly impeding the flow of weapons that fueled the fight. As his Democratic allies now like to forget, President Obama refused to send these same weapons out of fear of prolonging the war and arming Nazis . By abandoning Obama?s policy, the Democrats, Cohen warned, threaten to sabotage peace and strengthen Ukraine's far-right. > > "Zelensky ran as a peace candidate," Cohen explained. "He won an enormous mandate to make peace. So, that means he has to negotiate with Vladimir Putin." But there was a major obstacle. Ukrainian fascists "have said that they will remove and kill Zelensky if he continues along this line of negotiating with Putin? His life is being threatened literally by a quasi-fascist movement in Ukraine." > > Peace could only come, Cohen stressed, on one condition. "[Zelensky] can?t go forward with full peace negotiations with Russia, with Putin, unless America has his back," he said. "Maybe that won?t be enough, but unless the White House encourages this diplomacy, Zelensky has no chance of negotiating an end to the war. So the stakes are enormously high." > > > Stephen F. Cohen in October 2019. > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > In October 2019, Stephen F. Cohen (RIP) implored DC to support Zelensky's peace mandate. > > "His life is being threatened by a quasi-fascist movement," Cohen said. "He can?t go forward with full peace negotiations unless America has his back." Siding with fascists, DC chose war. > > April 10th 2022 > > 114 Retweets225 Likes > > The subsequent impeachment trial, and bipartisan US policy since, has made clear that Washington has had no interest in having Zelensky's back, and every interest in fueling the Donbas war that he had been elected to end. The overwhelming message from Congress, fervently amplified across the US media (including progressive outlets) with next to no dissent, was that when it comes to Ukraine's civil war, the US saw Ukraine's far-right as allies, and its civilians as cannon fodder. > > The Ukrainian battle against Russian-backed rebels, State Department official and opening impeachment witness George Kent testified, was being waged by the "Ukrainian equivalent of our own Minutemen of 1776." In his opening statement at Trump's trial, Democratic impeachment manager Adam Schiff approvingly quoted another Kent line: "The United States aids Ukraine and her people, so that we can fight Russia over there, and we don?t have to fight Russia here." > > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > If you don?t want Russia to fight Ukraine over there, don?t use Ukraine to fight Russia from here. > > February 26th 2022 > > 3,237 Retweets8,482 Likes > > Although Trump's impeachment failed to remove him from office, it succeeded in cementing the proxy war aims of its chief proponents : rather than support Zelensky's peace mandate, Ukraine would instead be used to "fight Russia over there." > > In using Ukraine to bleed Russia, the US has showcased its contempt for everything in Ukraine that it claims to defend, namely its democracy and security. By treating Ukraine as a depot for US weapons, the US has joined Ukrainian fascists in sabotaging the 2015 Minsk accords that could have put an end to the civil war triggered by a US-backed coup the year prior . Minsk called for granting Ukraine's Russian-speaking population in the eastern Donbas limited autonomy and respect for their language. This prospect was a non-starter for the far-right nationalists and Nazis empowered by the 2014 US-backed Maidan coup. > > "The uncomfortable truth is that a sizeable portion of Kiev?s current government ? and the protesters who brought it to power ? are, indeed, fascists," two specialists with prominent Western think tanks wrote in Foreign Policy in March 2014 , one month after the coup. > > The fascists have blocked peace in the Donbas at every turn. When the Ukrainian government voted on a "special law" advancing the Minsk accords in August 2015, the Svoboda party and other far-right groups led violent clashes that killed three Ukrainian soldiers and left dozens wounded. Then-Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, who had signed Minsk at a time when President Obama was resisting heavy bipartisan pressure to arm Ukraine, got the message and refused to uphold Ukraine's end of the bargain. > > In April 2019, Zelensky was elected with an overwhelming 73% of the vote on a promise to turn the tide. In his inaugural address the next month , Zelensky declared that he was "not afraid to lose my own popularity, my ratings," and was "prepared to give up my own position ? as long as peace arrives." > > But Ukraine's powerful far-right and neo-Nazi militias made clear to Zelensky that reaching peace in the Donbas would have a much higher cost. > > "No, he would lose his life," Right Sector co-founder Dmytro Anatoliyovych Yarosh, then the commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army, responded one week after Zelensky's inaugural speech . "He will hang on some tree on Khreshchatyk - if he betrays Ukraine and those people who died in the Revolution and the War." > > > May 2019 headline: ?Yarosh: if Zelensky betrays Ukraine, he will lose not his position, but his life? > Along with the threats to his life, Zelensky experienced direct obstacles to his peace mandate on multiple fronts. > > When Zelensky travelled to the Donbas in October 2019 to promote elections for the rebel-held areas, he was confronted by angry members of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion rallying under the slogan of "No to Capitulation." In one exchange caught on video, Zelensky sparred with an Azov member over the president's calls for a military drawdown. "I?m the president of this country. I?m 41 years old. I?m not a loser. I came to you and told you: remove the weapons," Zelensky pleaded. > > > Denis Rogatyuk > @DenisRogatyuk > #UkraineRussiaWar: This video is from 2019. It shows a confrontation between Zelensky and a member of Azov battalion in the Donbas region. Zelensky demands that the neo-nazis lay down their arms. The fighter refuses. > Zelensky is NOT running the show. The neo-nazis are. > > April 3rd 2022 > > 846 Retweets1,681 Likes > > But Zelensky met continued defiance. The same far-right forces set up an armed checkpoint to delay a Ukrainian military pullback. Thousands of far-right and nationalist protesters, cheered by the liberal intelligentsia and carrying flares as torches, also marched in Kiev. > When Zelensky's press secretary, Iuliia Mendel, "drew attention to the prevalence of civilian casualties" in the Donbas, "which she blamed on government forces? injudicious use of return fire," she was greeted instead with "a prosecutorial summons," Katharine Quinn-Judge of the International Crisis Group reported in April 2020, one year after Zelensky's election. Mendel's recognition of the suffering in the Donbas, Quinn-Judge observed, resulted from "Zelensky's campaign pledge to treat residents of Russia-backed enclaves more like full-fledged Ukrainians," ? a non-starter for the US-favored far-right nationalists, who harbored no such interest in Ukrainians' equality. > > Although Zelensky dithered on Minsk, he nonetheless continued talks on its implementation. The far-right continued to express its violent opposition at every turn, such as in August 2021, when at least eight police officers were wounded in armed protests outside the presidential offices. > > The far-right threats to Zelensky undoubtedly thwarted a peace agreement that could have prevented the Russian invasion. Just two weeks before Russia troops entered Ukraine, the New York Times noted that Zelensky "would be taking extreme political risks even to entertain a peace deal" with Russia, as his government "could be rocked and possibly overthrown" by far-right groups if he "agrees to a peace deal that in their minds gives too much to Moscow." > > Yuri Hudymenko, leader of the far-right Democratic Ax, even threatened Zelensky with an outright coup: "If anybody from the Ukrainian government tries to sign such a document, a million people will take to the streets and that government will cease being the government." > > Zelensky has clearly gotten the message. Instead of pursuing the peace platform that he was elected on, the Ukrainian President has instead made alliances with the Ukrainian far-right that violently opposed it. As recently as late January, amid last-chance talks to salvage the Minsk accords, Zelensky-appointed Ukrainian security chief Oleksiy Danilov instead pronounced that "the fulfillment of the Minsk agreement means the country?s destruction." At the final round of Minsk talks in February, just two weeks before Russia's invasion, a "key obstacle," the Washington Post reported , "was Kyiv?s opposition to negotiating with the pro-Russian separatists." > > Zelensky's acquiescence to Nazi forces was most recently underscored on April 7th, when an address to the Greek parliament was overshadowed by his airing of a video featuring a member of the neo-Nazi Azov battalion . > > "I think Zelensky found out very quickly that because of the Ukrainian right, it was impossible to implement Minsk II," John Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor who has warned for years that US policies were pushing Ukraine into a conflict with Russia, said in a public event the same day. "?Zelensky understands that he cannot take the Ukrainian right on by himself. So basically we have a situation where Zelensky is stymied." > > Echoing his late friend and colleague Stephen F. Cohen, Mearsheimer stressed the centrality of the US role. > > "The Americans will side with the Ukrainian right," Mearsheimer said. "Because the Americans, and the Ukrainian right, both do not want Zelensky cutting a deal with the Russians that makes it look like the Russians won. So this is the principal reason I'm very pessimistic about Ukraine's ability to help shut this one down." > > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > This week, John Mearsheimer, speaking to @KatrinaNation, noted the continued alliance between DC and Ukraine's far-right: > > "The Americans will side with the Ukrainian right... Both do not want Zelensky cutting a deal with the Russians that makes it look like the Russians won." > > April 10th 2022 > > 45 Retweets84 Likes > > While claiming to profess concern for Ukrainian lives, NATO policymakers have made plain their disregard for diplomacy. Instead, as retired senior US diplomat Chas Freeman recently told me , they have pursued a policy of fighting Russia "to the last Ukrainian." > > "Everything we are doing, rather than accelerate an end to the fighting and some compromise, seems to be aimed at prolonging the fighting," Freeman, the former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs, among a number of other senior positions, said. > > Invoking Freeman's warning, Noam Chomsky concurs that US policy amounts to a "death warrant" for Ukraine. > > > Aaron Mat? > @aaronjmate > Chomsky cites my recent interview with veteran US diplomat Chas Freeman, who warned that US policy amounts to fighting Russia "to the last Ukrainian." ( > thegrayzone.com/2022/03/24/us-? > ) Flooding Ukraine with weapons & blocking diplomatic solutions is a "death warrant", Chomsky says. > > April 6th 2022 > > 764 Retweets1,646 Likes > > Indeed, on April 5, the Washington Post made clear the prevailing viewpoint in Washignton and Brussels: "For some in NATO, it?s better for the Ukrainians to keep fighting, and dying, than to achieve a peace that comes too early or at too high a cost to Kyiv and the rest of Europe." While rhetorically claiming to support Ukrainian agency, in reality, the Post added, "there are limits to how many compromises some in NATO will support to win the peace." This is undoubtedly the message being relayed to Zelensky from the White House in what National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan described as "near-daily contact" with Zelensky?s team about the negotiations with Russia. > > In sabotaging Zelensky's peace mandate to side with the Ukrainian far-right, the US pushed Ukraine into a calamity that Professor Cohen warned about nearly three years ago. > > "There were moments in history, political history, when there?s an opportunity that is so good and wise and so often lost, the chance," Cohen told me in October 2019. "So, the chance for Zelensky, the new president who had this very large victory, 70 plus percent to negotiate with Russia an end to that war, it?s got to be seized. And it requires the United States, basically, simply saying to Zelensky, 'Go for it, we?ve got your back.'" > > By choosing to ignore the pleas of lonely voices like Cohen to instead have the back of Ukraine's far-right, Washington sabotaged a historic peace mandate and helped provoke a catastrophic war. > > Share > Subscribe now > Like > Comment > Share > > To support Aaron Mat??s independent journalism, subscribe here: > > Subscribe now > Give a gift subscription > Share Aaron Mate > ? 2022 Aaron Mat? Unsubscribe > 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Apr 15 21:28:43 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 15 Apr 2022 17:28:43 -0400 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?It=E2=80=99s_Simple=2C_=40BRhodes=2E_Pass_the_?= =?utf-8?q?Yemen_War_Powers_Resolution!?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Please vote in the poll. "Vote early, vote often." *Chag sameach!* https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/4/15/2092223/-It-s-Simple-BRhodes-Pass-the-Yemen-War-Powers-Resolution It?s Simple, @BRhodes. Pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution! Back in the Dark Ages of the 1980s, when we were young and green, trying to stop Reagan?s illegal wars in Central America, there was a t-shirt you could easily spot on any college campus in America: ?It?s simple, Steve. Why don?t you and your boys just get out of El Salvador?? We need to update this t-shirt for our time. ?It?s simple, @BRhodes. Pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution !? Tell me, *boichik*. Why is this ?night? in the unconstitutional deliberate-famine journalist-assassinating U.S.-Saudi regime relationship different from all other ?nights? in the unconstitutional deliberate-famine journalist-assassinating U.S.-Saudi regime relationship? Because there?s something we can do about it in Congress right now. We can pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution in Congress right now. Every American schoolkid who cares about Yemen knows who @BRhodes is. @BRhodes was Deputy National Security Advisor for Obama in March 2015, when the Obama Administration decided to ?go into Yemen with the Saudis,? as former Obama Chief of Staff Bill Daley once put it, expressing regret. @BRhodes was Deputy National Security Advisor for Obama in March 2015, when the Obama Administration decided that unconstitutional U.S. participation in the *Putinesque* Saudi regime war on Yemen was an acceptable ?side payment? to the Saudi regime for acquiescing in U.S. diplomacy with Iran. [Why we need Saudi regime permission for U.S. diplomacy with Iran is left as an exercise for the reader.] But then ? after he was no longer making U.S. foreign policy in the Obama Administration ? @BRhodes had a ?Saul on the road to Damascus? moment on U.S. participation in the Saudi regime war on Yemen. And, to his credit, he has remained consistent on this ever since. Unlike some people that we will pass over for now, as Cicero would say. Recently, @BRhodes said something pretty good about the recent truce in the Saudi regime war on Yemen: ?I?d like the U.S. to put on the table that we won?t support in any way a resumption of hostilities from the Saudi side and that includes providing any mil- you know - that would be - we have some leverage here! We obviously - we?ve all learned that you can?t tell the Saudis what to do! But we can tell them that we wouldn?t provide them any military support whatsoever for a resumption of hostilities in Yemen. That might be one way to make this stick. You know, so, that kind of solution has to be on the table too, here. Where the U.S. is actually really kind of bringing some weight to bear in trying to turn this into a lasting peace.? Not too shabby! But every American schoolkid who cares about Yemen knows that right now, as a practical matter, there is one and only one way for ?the U.S. to put on the table that we won?t support in any way a resumption of hostilities from the Saudi side.? And that?s for Congress to pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution . That?s the only thing that shuts this down for good. If Congress doesn?t shut this down for good now, in the future the Saudi regime could re-start the war, and the Administration could re-start its support. And at such a future juncture, we might be in a weaker position to shut this down, even though it?s unconstitutional because Congress never authorized it. Because in the future, we might not have a Democratic Congress to enforce the Constitution with. Do it now. ?*Morgen, morgen, nur nicht heute, sagen alle faulen Leute*.? As the old saying goes: ?They tried to kill us. We survived. Pass the Yemen War Powers Resolution!? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Tue Apr 19 04:06:05 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Mon, 18 Apr 2022 23:06:05 -0500 Subject: [Peace] The blitzkrieg failed - What's next? (Boris Kagarlitsky) Message-ID: <78BE75B1-F960-43D2-ADE3-BD8B03D5021B@newsfromneptune.com> The blitzkrieg failed - What's next? (Boris Kagarlitsky) ### From jbw292002 at gmail.com Tue Apr 19 09:33:32 2022 From: jbw292002 at gmail.com (John W.) Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 04:33:32 -0500 Subject: [Peace] The blitzkrieg failed - What's next? (Boris Kagarlitsky) In-Reply-To: <78BE75B1-F960-43D2-ADE3-BD8B03D5021B@newsfromneptune.com> References: <78BE75B1-F960-43D2-ADE3-BD8B03D5021B@newsfromneptune.com> Message-ID: That was interesting. Thank you, Carl. On Mon, Apr 18, 2022 at 11:06 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace < peace at lists.chambana.net> wrote: The blitzkrieg failed - What's next? (Boris Kagarlitsky) > > > > ### > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > Virus-free. www.avg.com <#DAB4FAD8-2DD7-40BB-A1B8-4E2AA1F9FDF2> -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Wed Apr 20 02:19:47 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Tue, 19 Apr 2022 21:19:47 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: [marxmail] Far Right AfD and Die Linke Join in Opposition to Germany Sending Leopard Tanks to Ukraine References: Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: "Bradley Mayer" > Subject: [marxmail] Far Right AfD and Die Linke Join in Opposition to Germany Sending Leopard Tanks to Ukraine > Date: April 19, 2022 at 9:16:10 PM CDT > To: marxmail at groups.io > Reply-To: marxmail at groups.io > > Despite the title, contains a very interesting sourced poll of German attitudes towards sending proxy military ordinance to Ukraine, at about 2:45. It shows heavy opposition only on the far right AfD and Die Linke! Brown-Red pacifism! > > https://youtu.be/SYZfvi0Ab78 > > Otherwise, a lesson in the modern battle tank. Spoiler: The Russian T-'s outclass the Leopard where the main function of a battle tank is to take out other battle tanks. > _._,_._,_ > Groups.io Links: > You receive all messages sent to this group. > > View/Reply Online (#16153) | Reply To Group | Reply To Sender | Mute This Topic | New Topic > POSTING RULES & NOTES > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. > Your Subscription | Contact Group Owner | Unsubscribe [carl at newsfromneptune.com] > _._,_._,_ -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Apr 20 15:22:24 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 11:22:24 -0400 Subject: [Peace] CPC: Recording from Yemen CPC, plus actions 4 co-sponsorship of Yemen WPR In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Quakers and CODEPINK, "united for peace," as it were. Like peanut butter and chocolate. ---------- Forwarded message --------- From: Marcy Winograd Date: Wed, Apr 20, 2022 at 9:38 AM Subject: [CODEPINKCONGRESS] Recording from last night's Yemen CPC, plus actions you can take to urge co-sponsorship of a Yemen War Powers Resolution. To: CODEPINKCONGRESS Dear CODEPINK Congress Peacemakers: Below: 1) YouTube video recording of our Tues., April 19th program (please click on the link and "like" the YouTube video). 2) actions you can take to end US military support for the war on Yemen. 3) links of interest on the subject. 4) next CODEPINK Congress Tues., May 3rd. 5) link to CODEPINK Radio's rebroadcast of our Zooms on Ukraine (Bennis & Gerson) and Palestine (Amal Thabetah/Palestine Legal and Cynthia Franklin, Against Canary Mission). Yemen: A New War Powers Resolution (recording of Tues., April 19, CODEPINK Congress) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WiejabMv5eI Please email your House rep to urge your rep to be an original co-sponsor of a coming Yemen War Powers Resolution. To co-sponsor out the gate, your rep should contact the offices of Congress members Jayapal and Defazio, the authors of the resolution that would bar US funds for the Saudi war on Yemen. Also call ... Click here to call your rep's office. https://oneclickpolitics.global.ssl.fastly.net/messages/edit?promo_id=16540 Links of Interest Some rare good news in a ravaged world: a truce in Yemen (Ryan Grimm with Hassan El-Tayyab. The Intercept. April 9, 2022) https://theintercept.com/2022/04/09/deconstructed-yemen-war-cease-fire-truce/ U.S. should use its leverage to end the war in Yemen (William Hartung and Annelle Sheline. Stars and Stripes. March 22, 2022) https://www.stripes.com/opinion/2022-03-24/us-should-use-its-leverage-to-end-the-war-in-yemen-5461301.html Next CODEPINK Congress: Tues., May 3: Report Back from Afghanistan w/Medea Benjamin and others. Ask your local non-commercial radio station to broadcast CODEPINK Radio (codepink.org/radio). Check out our recent broadcasts, including from CODEPINK Congress on Ukraine and Palestine. If your local station wants to air our weekly 55 min broadcast, they should contact Michelle at Codepink.org CODEPINK Radio airs on WBAI-NY, WPFW-DC, KPFT-Houston and Spotify and iTunes. In solidarity, Marcy Winograd Coordinator, CODEPINK Congress (codepink.org/codepinkcongress) Co-Chair, Progressive Democrats of America's End War & Occupation Team Member, Veterans for Peace Climate-Militarism Project @MarcyWinograd on twitter -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Apr 20 16:59:53 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 12:59:53 -0400 Subject: [Peace] Haaretz: Israel Wants Biden 2 Improve Ties With Saudi. His Party Isn't on Board In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: It appears that the Ambassador to the United States of the Government of Israel wants the United States of Fantastic America to kiss the ring of the Saudi regime. I have a few questions about this. How is this the business of the Israeli Ambassador to the United States? Does he vote here? Does he pay taxes here? Isn't this attempted foreign interference in the sovereign affairs of the United States of Fantastic America? Who died and made him Pope? As Bill Clinton might say: "Who's the fantastic superpower here?" https://www.haaretz.com/us-news/.premium-israel-wants-biden-to-improve-ties-with-the-saudis-his-party-isn-t-on-board-1.10750850 *Israel Wants Biden to Improve Ties With the Saudis. His Party Isn't on BoardJerusalem is an increasingly loud cheerleader in Washington for Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia, but senior Democrats in Congress expect Biden to live up to his 'pariah' statement on Riyadh* Ben Samuels Washington Apr. 19, 2022 WASHINGTON ? Iran is not the only Middle Eastern country on which Israel and the United States seemingly disagree. Israeli officials and *top Democratic lawmakers* are also at odds over the White House?s still-lukewarm relations with Saudi Arabia. Since assuming power in January 2021, the Biden administration has stopped short of living up to campaign promises of making Saudi Arabia a global pariah. However, U.S.-Saudi ties have nevertheless deteriorated in that time ? particularly following the administration?s February 2021 intelligence report that castigated Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman over journalist Jamal Khashoggi?s brutal murder in a Saudi consulate in Istanbul in October 2018. The Biden administration now finds itself at an inflection point with Riyadh due to the ongoing Iran nuclear deal talks and Russia?s invasion of Ukraine. Most urgently, the Americans want Saudi Arabia to significantly increase oil production to quell soaring prices amid Russian sanctions and domestic inflation. Saudi Arabia has declined, however, citing its existing agreement with OPEC and other allies. Reports that Crown Prince Mohammed also declined to speak with Joe Biden last month did not help matters. And despite a White House refutation, it illustrates the current state of U.S.-Saudi affairs ? amplified by the kingdom?s position on the Russia-Ukraine war and global Russia sanctions. Israeli officials are concerned that a stalled U.S.-Saudi rapprochement could spark a domino effect, leading to U.S. disengagement from the Middle East and creating a power vacuum for Iran to fill. Others are concerned that Saudi Arabia may then strategically align itself with China and Russia. Saudi Arabia and Israel openly share intelligence on Iran, and a potential Saudi realignment would put Israel in a tenuous position with its strategic superpower allies. Regional importance Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Herzog articulated Israel?s concerns last Thursday, stressing the need for the United States to improve its relations with the Saudis for the sake of regional security ? particularly in the face of the U.S.? potential reentry into the Iran nuclear deal. ?I understand the U.S. concerns, but I think Saudi Arabia is a hugely important actor in our part of the world and the Islamic world as a whole. And it?s important, in my view ? to the extent possible ? to fix relations between the U.S. and Saudi Arabia,? Herzog said at a breakfast event organized by the Al-Monitor website that focuses on the Middle East. ?Certainly if you?re going to do an Iran deal, I think it?s extremely important to our part of the world that this will be done,? Herzog continued, adding that ?strategically speaking ? and I?m not ignoring all the difficulties ? I think that [relations improving between the United States and Saudi Arabia] is very important for our region.? Another factor in Israel?s support for reconciliation is Jerusalem?s hope that Saudi Arabia will formally sign up to the Abraham Accords, joining previous signatories the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Sudan and Morocco in normalizing ties with Israel. ?Israel continues to seek to normalize relations around the region ? and Saudi Arabia is the crown jewel,? says Atlantic Council Nonresident Senior Fellow Carmiel Arbit. ?An Abraham Accords peace agreement won?t be possible without Saudi-U.S. rapprochement, but Israel certainly doesn?t shy from acting as broker for those seeking improved relations with Washington. But this is a long-term ambition,? she says, adding that ?their immediate fear that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action [nuclear deal] will embolden Iran and its proxies is once again bringing Israel closer to its Sunni Muslim allies ? who share these concerns.? *Herzog?s pleas stand in stark contrast to a letter sent from 32 leading House Democrats to U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken the day prior to the ambassador?s remarks.* In it, the lawmakers ?? *spanning the party?s ideological spectrum* ? told the administration that ?a recalibration of the U.S.-Saudi partnership is long overdue.? ?Our continued support for the Saudi monarchy, which systematically and ruthlessly represses its own citizens, targets critics all over the world, carries out a brutal war in Yemen, and bolsters authoritarian regimes throughout the Middle East and North Africa, runs counter to U.S. national interests and damages the credibility of the United States to uphold our values,? wrote the lawmakers, who included Reps. Gregory Meeks and Adam Schiff, who chair the Foreign Affairs and Intelligence committees, respectively. ?The United States can continue our status-quo of broad support for an autocratic partner, or we can stand for human rights and rebalance our relationship to reflect our values and interests,? they added. ?How we move forward will send a strong message to democracies, activists fighting for democracy, and human rights defenders and will play an important role in our fight against authoritarianism around the world.? An Israeli carrot *Experts from both sides of the political spectrum agree that Herzog?s comments and the Democrats? letter are at odds with each other.* Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft Executive Vice President Trita Parsi says this split is reflective of the broader divergence between the United States and Israel on strategic matters in the Middle East. ?*Israel?s priority is to keep the U. S. military engaged and present in the Middle East ? an interest it shares with Saudi Arabia and the UAE.* Moreover, it seeks to convince Saudi Arabia to join the Abraham Accords,? he says. ?*Being able to deliver a softer line on Saudi Arabia in Washington is one of the carrots Israel is putting in front of [Crown Prince Mohammed] in order to get a yes from Riyadh on the Abraham Accords*,? Parsi says. He stresses that *?the U.S. benefits little from a Saudi Arabia that continues to act recklessly in the region, makes a mockery of the U.S.? human rights policy and pays more attention to [Russian President Vladimir] Putin than to Biden.?* *Foundation for Defense of Democracies* [*self-naming chutzpah Academy Award!*] Senior Vice President for Research Jonathan Schanzer, meanwhile, believes the congressional letter reflects a partisan line of thinking currently in vogue among Democrats. ?It is utterly unhelpful [*to whom?*] at a moment, punctuated by the Ukraine war, in which the United States desperately needs energy partners, not to mention allies,? he says. ?By contrast, Herzog?s position reflects a nuanced understanding that, despite their flaws, the Saudis can be important friends ? especially in light of the recent global tumult,? Schanzer says. He notes that ?the looming Iran deal, which the Biden White House continues to pursue at nearly any cost, also continues to push Israel into the arms of the Saudis. [*?! Why are we supposed to be concerned about this? I thought we were supposed to support Saudi-Israel Kumbaya. So confusing!*] Both Israel and Saudi Arabia ?remain adamantly opposed to a deal that will empower their sworn common enemy with a lengthy track record of proxy violence across the region,? he adds. [*That's odd. Wasn't it just the other day that a bunch of top Israeli ex-national security people were saying that the U.S. leaving the Iran deal was terrible for Israel? How can both these things be true? Who's really driving this train, and to what end? Is this really about the well-being of Jewish civilians living in Israel, or is it about something else?*] -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Thu Apr 21 02:34:49 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Wed, 20 Apr 2022 21:34:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Why is Julian Assange seemingly headed to the US for punishment? Because he did real journalism. Message-ID: <60ff7ba9-3123-fc00-7356-468b5defd93d@forestfield.org> In case you need to briefly explain what's going on with Julian Assange (who just lost his case against extradition to the US), perhaps the attached will help. It's likely that his case will be appealed. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: Julian Assange persecuted for publishing truthful information.jpeg Type: image/jpeg Size: 958459 bytes Desc: not available URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Thu Apr 21 21:26:34 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:26:34 -0500 Subject: [Peace] 'Al Qaeda Is on our Side': How Obama-Biden team empowered terrorists in Syria Message-ID: <0EDD5E1A-B7CF-4BB1-A48D-FBE42C1E81CE@newsfromneptune.com> https://mate.substack.com/p/al-qaeda-is-on-our-side-how-obama From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Thu Apr 21 21:55:43 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2022 17:55:43 -0400 Subject: [Peace] Shireen Al-Adeimi | ITT: Truce or Not, Congress Must Urgently Bring About a Real End to the War on Yemen In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: https://inthesetimes.com/article/truce-yemen-war-powers-resolution-congress-biden-saudi-arabia Truce or Not, Congress Must Urgently Bring About a Real End to the War on YemenCongress needs to pass a War Powers Resolution to end U.S. complicity in the chaos and suffering in Yemen.SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI APRIL 21, 2022 More than seven years after the first airstrikes were launched on Yemen by the U.S.-supported Saudi-UAE coalition, a two-month truce with Yemen?s Ansar Allah (also referred to as Houthis) was announced at the beginning of this month. This UN-mediated truce comes after weeks of negotiations in Oman and marks the first pause in airstrikes on Yemen since March 2015. As part of the truce , the first fuel ships were allowed entry into the port of Hodeidah, and limited flights were allowed to enter Sanaa airport from Egypt and Jordan. Despite these positive developments, however, Saudi Arabia and the UAE remain entangled in Yemen ? militarily and politically. Days after the truce was announced, the Saudi-led coalition dismissed President Abed Rabbo Mansour Hadi, who had hitherto been touted as justification for occupying and intervening in Yemen?s conflict, and replaced him with a Presidential Leadership Council . With the so-called ?legitimate? president now reportedly confined to his Riyadh home, the coalition?s plan for Yemen appears to be entering a new phase. The Saudi-led coalition?s latest actions will likely sow further chaos in Yemen, thereby underscoring the urgency of legally disentangling the bloc?s largest supporter, the United States, from any further military actions in Yemen. In a letter released April 20, nearly 70 progressive organizations called on Congress to ?cosponsor and publicly support? a War Powers Resolution, soon to be introduced by Reps. Pramila Jayapal (D?Wash.) and Peter DeFazio (D?Ore.), aimed at compelling an end to U.S. involvement in the Yemen War. ?We urge all members of Congress to say ?no? to Saudi Arabia?s war of aggression,? states the letter, ?by fully ending all U.S. support for a conflict that has caused such immense bloodshed and human suffering. Uptick in Violence Last year, a UN-led investigation into human rights abuses in Yemen dissolved due to Saudi ?threats and incentives,? in the words of John Fisher, the Geneva director of Human Rights Watch. This was followed by a perceptible uptick in air raids. Without any semblance of accountability, the Saudi-led coalition increased its attacks on civilians, going as far as targeting Yemen?s telecommunications infrastructure, killing three children nearby, and causing a four-day blackout of the country?s internet in January. In the early months of this year, U.S.-supported attacks on civilians also included an airstrike on a detention center that killed 91 people, most of whom were migrants. On the ground, the Houthis remained the de facto government in much of northern Yemen, but were unsuccessful in wresting the gas-rich province of Marib from the coalition?s control. And as Saudi-led air raids increased in frequency, Houthis scored a rare incursion against Saudi Arabia and the UAE by successfully striking both countries. Houthis fire back As the seven-year anniversary of the Saudi-UAE war on Yemen approached, Yemen?s Houthis launched several missile and drone attacks on both the UAE and Saudi Arabia. While many of these attempts were intercepted, a fuel tank in the UAE?s capital, Abu Dhabi, came under a Houthi drone attack. The Houthis followed this with a missile attack on an Aramco oil facility in the Saudi city of Jeddah just as the city was preparing to host the Formula One race. With both countries? stability now threatened, and with the Houthis? unsuccessful bid to capture Marib, warring parties participated in UN-mediated negotiations in neighboring Oman and subsequently agreed to a truce. Shortly after the truce was announced, however, Saudi Arabia assembled a council of eight Yemeni men who now lead Yemen instead of President Hadi and his vice president of five years (and a longtime Houthi foe), Ali Mohsen Al-Ahmar. War council The eight-member council is led by the Riyadh-based Rashad Al-Alimi, a former minister and Hadi adviser with close ties to Saudi Arabia, and a member of the Islamist Islah Party. He and three other members are allied with and backed by Saudi Arabia: Riyadh-based Abdullah Al-Alimi is a member of the Islah; Riyadh-based Othman Majli is a tribal leader from Saadah and a member of Hadi?s party, the General People?s Congress; and Sultan Al-Aradah is the governor of Marib, which is the Riyadh-based government?s last stronghold in northern Yemen and where ground battles continue despite the truce. He is also allied with the Islah Party. The remaining four members are backed (and funded) by the UAE: Aidarous Al-Zubaidi heads the Southern Transitional Council, a secessionist group; Tareq Saleh is former president Ali Abdullah Saleh?s nephew, who switched from fighting alongside the Houthis to fighting against them after his uncle was killed in 2017; Faraj Al-Bahsani is the governor of Hadramout; and Abdulrahman Abu Zara?a Al-Muharrami is a Salafist commander of the UAE-funded Giants Brigades militia that defeated the Houthis in the southern, oil-rich province of Shabwa. While they are tasked with leading negotiations with the Houthis, all were hand-selected for their allegiance to Saudi Arabia and the UAE. Nearly all have fought the Houthis at various battlefronts, and some have a history of fighting each other . The appointment of this war council may mark a new, chaotic phase in the war on Yemen: one that involves a smaller Saudi and UAE military footprint, but nonetheless furthers both countries? agendas through their anti-Houthi coalition of warlords. The military conflict in Yemen left the majority of Yemeni civilians in dire conditions. To end their suffering, a diplomatic approach is essential, coupled with an end to foreign involvement through bombardment, the imposition of the blockade, and financing local warlords and political parties. The latest political reshuffling by foreign governments that took place away from the negotiating table in Oman will likely lead to continued fighting on the ground, and may even serve to shield Saudi Arabia and its allies from accountability. The U.S. war on Yemen The truce in Yemen may or may not hold. Regardless of the outcome, however, the United States must legislate an end to its illegal involvement in the war on Yemen. Thus, while Saudi Arabia and the UAE continue to further their agendas in Yemen by financing local warlords, Congress must ensure that the current (or future) U.S. administration does not follow a similar policy. Despite calling the truce a ?long-awaited reprieve for the Yemeni people,? President Biden?s administration has mirrored both Trump and Obama administration policies in Yemen by continuing to provide assistance and arms to the Saudi-UAE coalition. One year ago, in his first major foreign policy speech as president, Biden announced an end to U.S. support for ?offensive? operations in the war on Yemen. Questions about the distinction between offensive and defensive involvement remained unanswered , and the U.S. policy appeared to be nothing more than a rebranding of Obama and Trump?s policies in Yemen. This prompted Jayapal and DeFazio to announce in February their intention to introduce a War Powers Resolution, a federal law that places war-making under Congressional, not executive, powers. The measure would therefore force President Biden to end the unconstitutional U.S. intervention in Yemen, which has ensured the smooth operation of Saudi war jets through spare parts and maintenance, supplied weapons, and provided diplomatic, as well as logistical and intelligence, support to the coalition. With a War Powers bill at his desk, it would be unlikely ? or at least unpopular ? for Biden to veto the bill as his predecessor had done. If nothing else, a veto would contradict his publicly stated intention to end the U.S. role in the war. With the future of this fragile truce uncertain, a likelihood of continued foreign entanglement in Yemen, and a mounting civilian death toll that now nears 400,000 and involves a Yemeni child dying every 75 seconds , passing a War Powers bill and ending all forms of support for the Saudi and UAE coalition and their allies should be the top priority for Congress. SHIREEN AL-ADEIMI is an assistant professor of education at Michigan State University. Since 2015, she has played an active role in raising awareness about the Saudi-led war on her country of birth, Yemen, and works to encourage political action to end U.S. support. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Thu Apr 21 22:00:59 2022 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Thu, 21 Apr 2022 17:00:59 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Recommended videos for AWARE on the Air, News from Neptune, and Labor's World View TV Message-ID: <3cbe22df-02e9-f1d6-e91e-dc2bc9445b48@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 ================================================== Multipolarista (Ben Norton) Who is Pakistan's Imran Khan? From athlete to protester of US wars to overthrown prime minister (1h 15m 38s) https://rokfin.com/post/82552/Who-is-Pakistans-Imran-Khan-From-athlete-to-protester-of-US-wars-to-overthrown-prime-minister US-backed coup in Pakistan overthrows PM Imran Khan over his independent foreign policy (49m 42s) https://rokfin.com/post/82289/USbacked-coup-in-Pakistan-overthrows-PM-Imran-Khan-over-his-independent-foreign-policy The real anti-war position on Ukraine: Abolish NATO https://rokfin.com/post/80461/The-real-antiwar-position-on-Ukraine-Abolish-NATO Ukraine President Zelensky has a huge Nazi problem https://rokfin.com/post/80294/Ukraine-President-Zelensky-has-a-huge-Nazi-problem--its-a-fact-not-Russian-propaganda RT ?They bit off more than they can chew dealing with Russia? ? Former CIA Analyst (13m 26s) https://rumble.com/v11q40d-they-bit-off-more-than-they-can-chew-dealing-with-russia-former-cia-analyst.html Pressure must be put on Johnson?s govt to block extradition - Richard Medhurst on Assange case (5m 02s) https://rumble.com/v11p2ul-pressure-must-be-put-on-johnsons-govt-to-block-extradition-richard-medhurst.html Law criminalizing sharing banned media passed in Austria (1m 46s) https://rumble.com/v11onbp-law-criminalizing-sharing-banned-media-passed-in-austria.html The Socialist Program with Brian Becker via BreakThrough News New Cold War Witch Hunt Targets Journalists Opposed to US Empire https://youtube.com/watch?v=kGYRuvOKyfo Give War a Chance: NATO and Neo-Nazis Want Ukraine Conflict to Go on Forever https://youtube.com/watch?v=0C1O2WWqyPQ Ukraine as a Pawn w/ Vijay Prashad https://youtube.com/watch?v=LgJvNHxEAR4 Ukraine: Questions for the US Anti-War Movement w/ Abby Martin & Brian Becker https://youtube.com/watch?v=w6HQeunm2f4 Labor's World View TV ================================================== Jimmy Dore Show Amazon Union Organizer Responds To Liberal Critics (20m) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZ9XGLhEyn4 laborvideo The Role Of The AFL-CIO In The 2002 Attempted Coup In Venezuela With William Camacaro https://youtube.com/watch?v=EPEUmRl0FGY US Labor Imperialism & The AFL-CIO With US Labor Historian Kim Scipes https://youtube.com/watch?v=ppyBeISp5zQ Chris Hedges On Imperialist Wars, Capitalist Media & The Censorship https://youtube.com/watch?v=iHUjDdEz0Xw More Perfect Union Inside Amazon Labor Union: How Workers Took On Amazon And WON https://youtube.com/watch?v=A5Go6_SgNZ0 Amazon Culpable for Deaths of Six Warehouse Workers, New Evidence Reveals https://youtube.com/watch?v=Hbx-nLeghk8 Amazon & NYPD Collude To Bust Union Drive https://youtube.com/watch?v=UBjp0om-yMs Congressional Workers Reveal Culture of Abuse On Capitol Hill https://youtube.com/watch?v=J4FWb8aOsxc Washington Verizon Workers Call For Nationwide Union Drive https://youtube.com/watch?v=7KakYFo-lGk McDonald's & Wendy's Fry Makers EXPOSE Horrific Working Conditions https://youtube.com/watch?v=lZmVv5rpPpY Massive Corporate Dispensary Fires, Then Rehires And Misclassifies Organizing Workers https://youtube.com/watch?v=kJzkpAfKtPY From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 22 19:05:57 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:05:57 -0500 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?b?RndkOiBCaWcgVGVjaOKAmXMg4oCYQ2FuY2VsIEN1bHR1?= =?utf-8?q?re=E2=80=99_Love_Affair?= References: <20220422140056.1.5AD574855F460433@mg.unz.com> Message-ID: <9D24AC83-2617-4C5D-89D9-9855D1966B41@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Pepe Escobar / The Unz Review > Subject: Big Tech?s ?Cancel Culture? Love Affair > 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 > Big Tech?s ?Cancel Culture? Love Affair Pepe Escobar ? Thursday, April 21, 2022 ? 1,400 Words > Utter insanity, @Twitter has suspended @RealPepeEscobar , one of Eurasia's top journalists and geopolitical analysts, with 35 years experience in the field. Twitter, kindly RESTORE this account and verify him. @elonmusk pic.twitter.com/5gSzvA7tuu > ? Sharmine Narwani (@snarwani) April 13, 2022 > > This month, several of us ? Scott Ritter , myself, ASB Military News , among others ? were canceled from Twitter. The ? unstated ? reason: we were debunking the officially approved narrative of the Russia/NATO/Ukraine war. > > As with all things Big Tech, that was predictable. I lasted only seven months on Twitter. And that was long enough. Contacts in California had told me I was on their radar because the account grew too fast, and had enormous reach, especially after the start of Operation Z. > > I celebrated the cancelation by experiencing an aesthetic illumination in front of the Aegean Sea, at the home of Herodotus, the Father of History. Additionally, it was heart-warming to be recognized by the great George Galloway in his moving tribute to targets of the new McCarthyism. > > In parallel, comic relief of the ?Mars Attacks? variety was provided by expectations of free speech on Twitter being saved by the benign intervention of Elon Musk. > > Techno-feudalism is one of the overarching themes of my latest book, Raging Twenties ? published in early 2021 and?reviewed here in a very thoughtful and meticulous manner. > > Cancel culture is inbuilt in the techno-feudalist project: conform to the hegemonic narrative, or else. In my own case regarding Twitter and Facebook ? two of the guardians of the internet, alongside Google ? I knew a day of reckoning was inevitable, because like other countless users I had previously been dispatched to those notorious ?jails?. > > On one Facebook occasion, I sent a sharp message highlighting that I was a columnist/analyst for an established Hong Kong-based media company. Some human, not an algorithm, must have read it, because the account was restored in less than 24 hours. > > But then the account was simply disabled ? with no warning. I requested the proverbial ?review?. The response was a demand for proof of ID. Less than 24 hours later, came the verdict: ?Your account has been disabled? because it had not followed those notoriously hazy ?community standards.? The decision was ?reviewed? and ?it can?t be reversed?. > > I celebrated with a Buddhist mini-requiem on Instagram . > > > My hit-by-a-Hellfire missile Facebook page clearly identified for the general public who I was, at the time: ?Geopolitical analyst at Asia Times?. The fact of the matter is Facebook algorithms canceled a top columnist from Asia Times ? with a proven record and a global profile. The algos would never have had the ? digital ? guts to do the same with a top columnist from The New York Times or the Financial Times. > > Asia Times lawyers in Hong Kong sent a letter to Facebook management. Predictably, there was no response. > > Of course becoming a target of cancel culture ? twice ? does not even remotely compare to the fate of Julian Assange, imprisoned for over three years in Belmarsh under the most appalling circumstances, and about to be dispatched for ?judgment? in the American gulag for the crime of committing journalism. Yet the same ?logic? applies: journalism that does not conform to the hegemonic narrative must be taken down. > > Conform, or Else > > At the time, I discussed the matter with several Western analysts. As one of them succinctly put it, ?You were ridiculing the U.S. president while pointing out the positives of Russia, China and Iran. That?s a deadly combination?. > > Others were simply stunned: ?I wonder why you were restricted as you work for a reputable publication.? Or made the obvious connections: ?Facebook is a censorship machine. I did not know that they do not give reasons for what they do but then they are part of the Deep State.? > > The group letter signed by the likes of Michael Morell, James Clapper, and Leon Panetta about the importance of Big Tech is horrifying. They just come out and say public information flow needs to be controlled for national security reasons. https://t.co/FwVmsRZBtU > ? Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) April 20, 2022 > > A banking source that usually places my columns on the desks of selected Masters of the Universe put it New York-style: ?You severely p****d the Atlantic Council?. No question: the specimen who oversaw the canceling of my account was a former Atlantic Council hack. > > Ron Unz in California had the account of his extremely popular website Unz Review purged by Facebook on April 2020. Subsequently, readers who tried to post their articles met with an ?error? message describing the content as ?abusive?. > > When Unz mentioned my case to renowned economist James Galbraith, ?he really was quite shocked, and thought it might signal a very negative censorship trend on the Internet.? > > The ?censorship trend? is a fact ? for quite a while now. Take this U.S. State Department 2020 report identifying ?pillars of Russia?s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.? > > State Dept. Directive > > The late Pompeo-era report demonizes ?fringe or conspiracy-minded? websites who happen to be extremely critical of U.S. foreign policy. They include Moscow-based Strategic Culture Foundation ? where I?m a columnist ? and Canada-based Global Research, which republishes most of my columns (but so does Consortium News, ZeroHedge and many other U.S. websites). I?m cited in the report by name, along with quite a few top columnists. > > The report?s ?research? states that Strategic Culture ? which is blocked by Facebook and Twitter ? is directed by the SVR, Russian foreign intel. This is ridiculous. I met the previous editors in Moscow ? young, energetic, with enquiring minds. They had to quit their jobs because after the report they started to be severely threatened online. > > So the directive comes straight from the State Department ? and that has not changed under Biden-Harris: any analysis of U.S. foreign policy that deviates from the norm is a ?conspiracy theory? ? a terminology that was invented and perfected by the C.I.A. > > > Couple it with the partnership between Facebook and the Atlantic Council? ? which is a de facto NATO think tank ? and now we have a real powerful ecosystem. > > It?s a Wonderful Life > > Every silicon fragment in the valley connects Facebook as a direct extension of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)?s LifeLog project, a Pentagon attempt to ?build a database tracking a person?s entire existence.? Facebook launched its website exactly on the same day? ? Feb. 4, 2004 ? that DARPA and the Pentagon shuttered LifeLog. > > No explanation by DARPA was ever provided. The MIT?s David Karger , at the time, remarked, ?I am sure that such research will continue to be funded under some other title. I can?t imagine DARPA ?dropping out? of such a key research area.? > > Of course a smokin? gun directly connecting Facebook to DARPA will never be allowed to surface. But occasionally some key players speak out, such as Douglas Gage, none other than LifeLog?s conceptualizer : ?Facebook is the real face of pseudo-LifeLog at this point (?) We have ended up providing the same kind of detailed personal information to advertisers and data brokers and without arousing the kind of opposition that LifeLog provoked.? > > So Facebook has absolutely nothing to do with journalism. Not to mention pontificating over a journalist?s work, or assuming it?s entitled to cancel him or her. Facebook is an ?ecosystem? built to sell private data at a huge profit, offering a public service as a private enterprise, but most of all sharing the accumulated data of its billions of users with the U.S. national security state. > > The resulting algorithmic stupidity, also shared by Twitter ? incapable of recognizing nuance, metaphor, irony, critical thinking ? is perfectly integrated into what former C.I.A. analyst Ray McGovern brilliantly coined as the MICIMATT (military-industrial-congressional-intelligence-media-academia-think tank complex). > > In the U.S., at least the odd expert on monopoly power identified this neo-Orwellian push as accelerating ?the collapse of journalism and democracy.? > > Facebook ?fact-checking professional journalists? does not even qualify as pathetic. Otherwise Facebook ? and not analysts like McGovern ? would have debunked Russiagate. It would not routinely cancel Palestinian journalists and analysts. It would not disable the account of University of Tehran professor Mohammad Marandi ? who was actually born in the U.S. > > I received quite a few messages stating that being canceled by Facebook ? and now by Twitter ? is a badge of honor. Well, everything is impermanent (Buddhism) and everything flows (Daoism). So being deleted ? twice ? by an algorithm qualifies at best as a cosmic joke. > > Pepe Escobar?s latest book is Raging Twenties . He remains un-cancelled on VK , Telegram and Instagram . > > > Unsubscribe From This Mailing List -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 22 19:06:58 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:06:58 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Listen to This Article: America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone References: <20220422122548.3.5d3772e7f8037596@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Matt Taibbi > Subject: Listen to This Article: America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone > Date: April 22, 2022 at 7:25:48 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: Matt Taibbi > > > > Listen to This Article: America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone > Narrated Version > Matt Taibbi > Apr 22 > > 0:00 > -12:05 > Listen in podcast app > From left to right, from Chomsky to Carlson, war-skeptical voices are being denounced at levels not seen since Iraq > > Narrated by Jared Moore > > Text Published 4/19/2022: > > > TK News by Matt Taibbi > America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone > In a 1979 essay called, ?My Speech to the Graduates,? Woody Allen wrote: More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly? > Read more > 3 days ago ? 683 likes ? 810 comments ? Matt Taibbi > > Like > > > Comment > > > Share > > You?re on the free list for TK News by Matt Taibbi . For the full experience, become a paying subscriber . > > Subscribe now > > Facebook > > Twitter > > Instagram > > Youtube > > ? 2022 Matt Taibbi Unsubscribe > 548 Market Street PMB 72296, San Francisco, CA 94104 > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 22 19:07:48 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:07:48 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone References: <20220419215914.3.237349153e75e9be@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: <4AF7CB71-8711-4AA4-B3F9-F2AD802657FA@newsfromneptune.com> > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Matt Taibbi > Subject: America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone > Date: April 19, 2022 at 4:59:14 PM CDT > To: carl at newsfromneptune.com > Reply-To: Matt Taibbi > > > > America's Intellectual No-Fly Zone > From left to right, from Chomsky to Carlson, war-skeptical voices are being denounced at levels not seen since Iraq > Matt Taibbi > Apr 19 > > In a 1979 essay called, ?My Speech to the Graduates,? Woody Allen wrote: > > More than any other time in history, mankind faces a crossroads. One path leads to despair and utter hopelessness. The other, to total extinction. Let us pray we have the wisdom to choose correctly. > > Allen was satirizing the notion that there are always good choices in life. Often, there aren?t. Sometimes the fork in the road ahead asks you to choose between different routes to hell. The late, great Gilbert Gottfried once made the same point in a standup routine about stranded missionaries just slightly less subtle than Allen?s bit. > > Indomitable public intellectual Noam Chomsky gave an interview to Current Affairs last week called, ?How to Prevent World War III .? Regarding Ukraine, Chomsky revisited ?My Speech to the Graduates?: > > There are two options with regard to Ukraine. As we know, one option is a negotiated settlement , which will offer Putin an escape, an ugly settlement. Is it within reach? We don?t know; you can only find out by trying and we?re refusing to try. But that?s one option. The other option is to make it explicit and clear to Putin and the small circle of men around him that you have no escape, you?re going to go to a war crimes trial no matter what you do. Boris Johnson just reiterated this : sanctions will go on no matter what you do. What does that mean? It means go ahead and obliterate Ukraine and go on to lay the basis for a terminal war. > > Those are the two options: and we?re picking the second and praising ourselves for heroism and doing it: fighting Russia to the last Ukrainian. > > Immediate shrieking outrage of course ensued (why doesn?t Twitter have a special ?torch? emoji for denunciatory mobs?). Chomsky was judged a genocide-enabling, America-hating Kremlin stooge. A tiny sample: > > > Reinhard B?tikofer > @bueti > Noam Chomsky's position on war and peace depends on who is attacking whom. Against military actions by the U.S. he is a moralist soaked in anti-imperialism. In other cases he is an untra-realist telling the victims that this is how the world functions. > April 17th 2022 > > 541 Retweets3,270 Likes > > > Jasmin Mujanovi? > @JasminMuj > I see we are on day two of pretending Chomsky is but a misinformed grandpa spouting off pro-Kremlin disinformation re: Ukraine rather than a man who has knowingly spent decades peddling bad faith, revisionist hokum, in defense of every murderous tyrant from Pol Pot to Milosevic. > April 17th 2022 > > 324 Retweets1,220 Likes > > > Kyle Orton > @KyleWOrton > It's been said a million times, but bears repeating: none of these people - Chomsky, Pilger, Sy Hersh - "went wrong"; they have always been exactly the same, driven by anti-Americanism and a sympathy for literally any force, no matter how gruesome, that could fight American power > Zack Beauchamp @zackbeauchamp > Reading that Current Affairs interview with Chomsky, and I see why everyone's mad about the Ukraine passages. But this from Chomsky is a hell of a factual error. https://t.co/yvfylLMJMg > April 18th 2022 > > 118 Retweets565 Likes > > I reached out to Chomsky about the brouhaha. The good professor was charmingly unaware he?d set off a social media meltdown, but commented in a general way. ... > Keep reading with a 7-day free trial > Subscribe to TK News by Matt Taibbi to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post 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 carl at newsfromneptune.com Fri Apr 22 19:08:49 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 14:08:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Give War A Chance References: <20220412164445.2.73bc4aeaee324496.cp048842@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: > Begin forwarded message: > > From: Matt Taibbi > Subject: Give War A Chance > Date: April 12, 2022 at 11:44:45 AM CDT > To: cgestabrook at gmail.com > Reply-To: Matt Taibbi > > > > Give War A Chance > More and more, we're told outright war isn't just necessary and right, but the thing that will solve America's existential problems > Matt Taibbi > Apr 12 > > Robert Kagan > Robert Kagan, neoconservative writer and husband to Deputy Undersecretary of State Victoria Nuland, wrote a piece called ?The Price of Hegemony ? in Foreign Affairs last week that was fascinating. If I?d written his opening, people would denounce me as a Putin-concubine: > > Although it is obscene to blame the United States for Putin?s inhumane attack on Ukraine, to insist that the invasion was entirely unprovoked is misleading. > > Just as Pearl Harbor was the consequence of U.S. efforts to blunt Japanese expansion on the Asian mainland, and just as the 9/11 attacks were partly a response to the United States? dominant presence in the Middle East after the first Gulf War, so Russian decisions have been a response to the expanding post?Cold War hegemony of the United States and its allies in Europe. > > Kagan went on to make an argument straight out of Dr. Strangelove. Instead of doing what some critics want and focusing on ?improving the well-being of Americans,? the U.S. government is instead properly recognizing the responsibility that comes with being a superpower. So, while Russia?s invasion may indeed have been a foreseeable consequence of a decision to expand our hegemonic reach, now that we?re here, there?s only one option left. Total commitment: > > It is better for the United States to risk confrontation with belligerent powers when they are in the early stages of ambition and expansion, not after they have already consolidated substantial gains. Russia may possess a fearful nuclear arsenal, but the risk of Moscow using it is not higher now than it would have been in 2008 or 2014, if the West had intervened then. And it has always been extraordinarily small? > > A month after Putin?s invasion of Ukraine, blood seems to be rushing to all the wrong places across the Commentariat, which has begun in earnest the predictable process of asking the public to dismiss fears of nuclear combat. Headlines of the ?We?ll take those odds? variety are springing up everywhere, from the Seattle Times (?Atrocities change the nuclear weapons calculus?) to Radio Free Europe (?Former NATO Commander Says Western Fears Of Nuclear War Are Preventing A Proper Response To Putin?) to Fox (which had on Sean Penn, of all people, to say to Sean Hannity , ?Countries that have nuclear weapons can remain intimidated to use them, and we?re seeing that now with our own country?). This is fast becoming a bipartisan consensus. Check out Republican Adam Kinzinger?s recent comment: > > > Adam Kinzinger > @AdamKinzinger > If we let nukes prevent us from action then expect literally every country to try to get nukes in next few years > April 12th 2022 > > 387 Retweets3,180 Likes > > Most of us look back at 9/11 and wish we?d tried to narrow the scope of the problem, not expand it in grandiose ways and make it the central fact of the lives of every person on the planet. We were told right away that 9/11 meant so much more than a policing problem, that instead of a few nut-jobs slipping through the net, bin Laden?s Twin Tower attacks heralded an inevitable, and desirable, Final Battle between new and old worlds. We?re going through something similar now. The pundit excitement over the final clash between ?Democracy and Autocracy? perhaps being at hand reminds me exactly of the open praying for signs of the Apocalypse I once heard among the Rapture-ready flock of pastor John Hagee in San Antonio. > > We saw a ton of this thinking after 9/11. World-domination advocates who?d been laughed out of meetings for years were taken seriously overnight. Rigid with jingoistic fervor, they were suddenly in print and on air everywhere, bursting with ?plans for everyone ,? as Iggy Pop put it. Such people always rush to the front of the debate in these moments and they?re always listened to, until about ten years later, when it quietly becomes okay to reflect on a question we probably should have pondered in the moment, i.e. ?Hey, are these people crazy??... > Keep reading with a 7-day free trial > Subscribe to TK News by Matt Taibbi to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post 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 naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Fri Apr 22 22:35:34 2022 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 22 Apr 2022 18:35:34 -0400 Subject: [Peace] [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Give War A Chance In-Reply-To: References: <20220412164445.2.73bc4aeaee324496.cp048842@mg2.substack.com> Message-ID: "*More and more*, we're told outright war isn't just necessary and right, but the thing that will solve America's existential problems" "*More and more*"?! How could it be any more than it was already? This is why LBJ had the right idea with the "War on Poverty." If we have to have a war on something, let's have a war on something bad that it's obvious you can't do anything about with guns. Let's have a "war on poverty," let's have a "war on climate change," let's have a "war on racism." Let's have a war on something bad, which it's obvious that you can't do anything about by dropping a bomb on someone. On Fri, Apr 22, 2022 at 3:09 PM C. G. Estabrook via Peace-discuss < peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net> wrote: > > > Begin forwarded message: > > *From: *Matt Taibbi > *Subject: **Give War A Chance* > *Date: *April 12, 2022 at 11:44:45 AM CDT > *To: *cgestabrook at gmail.com > *Reply-To: *Matt Taibbi < > reply+uvpt4&692a&&bfd03b118b3c94cc59ae165b6c355087227e3dc833736808e88259dadf558800 at mg1.substack.com > > > > > > Give War A Chance > More > and more, we're told outright war isn't just necessary and right, but the > thing that will solve America's existential problems > Matt Taibbi > Apr > 12 > > *Robert > Kagan* > > Robert Kagan, neoconservative writer and husband to Deputy Undersecretary > of State Victoria Nuland, wrote a piece called ?The Price of Hegemony > ? > in *Foreign Affairs *last week that was fascinating. If I?d written his > opening, people would denounce me as a Putin-concubine: > > *Although it is obscene to blame the United States for Putin?s inhumane > attack on Ukraine, to insist that the invasion was entirely unprovoked is > misleading. * > > *Just as Pearl Harbor was the consequence of U.S. efforts to blunt > Japanese expansion on the Asian mainland, and just as the 9/11 attacks were > partly a response to the United States? dominant presence in the Middle > East after the first Gulf War, so Russian decisions have been a response to > the expanding post?Cold War hegemony of the United States and its allies in > Europe.* > > Kagan went on to make an argument straight out of *Dr. Strangelove*. > Instead of doing what some critics want and focusing on ?improving the > well-being of Americans,? the U.S. government is instead properly > recognizing the responsibility that comes with being a superpower. So, > while Russia?s invasion may indeed have been a foreseeable consequence of a > decision to expand our hegemonic reach, now that we?re here, there?s only > one option left. Total commitment: > > *It is better for the United States to risk confrontation with belligerent > powers when they are in the early stages of ambition and expansion, not > after they have already consolidated substantial gains. Russia may possess > a fearful nuclear arsenal, but the risk of Moscow using it is not higher > now than it would have been in 2008 or 2014, if the West had intervened > then. And it has always been extraordinarily small?* > > > > > A month after Putin?s invasion of Ukraine, blood seems to be rushing to > all the wrong places across the Commentariat, which has begun in earnest > the predictable process of asking the public to dismiss fears of nuclear > combat. Headlines of the ?We?ll take those odds? variety are springing up > everywhere, from the *Seattle Times *(?Atrocities change the nuclear > weapons calculus?) to *Radio Free Europe *(?Former NATO Commander Says > Western Fears Of Nuclear War Are Preventing A Proper Response To Putin?) to > Fox (which had on Sean Penn, of all people, to say to Sean Hannity > , > ?Countries that have nuclear weapons can remain intimidated to use them, > and we?re seeing that now with our own country?). This is fast becoming a > bipartisan consensus. Check out Republican Adam Kinzinger?s recent comment: > [image: Twitter avatar for @AdamKinzinger]Adam Kinzinger @AdamKinzinger > If we let nukes prevent us from action then expect literally every country > to try to get nukes in next few years > > > April 12th 2022 > 387 Retweets3,180 Likes > > > > Most of us look back at 9/11 and wish we?d tried to narrow the scope of > the problem, not expand it in grandiose ways and make it the central fact > of the lives of every person on the planet. We were told right away that > 9/11 meant so much more than a policing problem, that instead of a few > nut-jobs slipping through the net, bin Laden?s Twin Tower attacks heralded > an inevitable, and desirable, Final Battle between new and old worlds. > We?re going through something similar now. The pundit excitement over the > final clash between ?Democracy and Autocracy? perhaps being at hand reminds > me exactly of the open praying for signs of the Apocalypse I once heard among > the Rapture-ready flock > > of pastor John Hagee in San Antonio. > We saw a ton of this thinking after 9/11. World-domination advocates who?d > been laughed out of meetings for years were taken seriously overnight. > Rigid with jingoistic fervor, they were suddenly in print and on air > everywhere, bursting with ?plans for everyone > ,? > as Iggy Pop put it. Such people always rush to the front of the debate in > these moments and they?re always listened to, until about ten years later, > when it quietly becomes okay to reflect on a question we probably should > have pondered in the moment, i.e. ?Hey, are these people crazy??... > Keep reading with a 7-day free trial > > Subscribe to *TK News by Matt Taibbi* to keep reading this post and get 7 > days of free access to the full post 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 > [image: Publish on Substack] > [image: > Get the app] > > > > _______________________________________________ > 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 Mon Apr 25 00:10:09 2022 From: carl at newsfromneptune.com (C. G. Estabrook) Date: Sun, 24 Apr 2022 19:10:09 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Suppressed Mate' Message-ID: <251F9EF0-3973-4467-90B3-9510E83FF2C9@newsfromneptune.com> Aaron Mat? Apr 20 {Insurgents with the Nusra-led ?Army of Conquest? coalition in Idlid, March 2015. (ZEIN AL-RIFAI/AFP via Getty Images)] Hours after the Feb. 3 U.S. military raid in northern Syria that left the leader of ISIS and multiple family members dead, President Biden delivered a triumphant White House address. The late-night Special Forces operation in Syria's Idlib province, Biden proclaimed, was a "testament to America?s reach and capability to take out terrorist threats no matter where they hide around the world." Unmentioned by the president, and virtually all media accounts of the assassination, was the critical role that top members of his administration played during the Obama years in creating the Al Qaeda-controlled hideout where ISIS head Abu Ibrahim al-Qurayshi, as well as his slain predecessor, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, found their final refuge. In waging a multi-billion dollar covert war in support of the insurgency against Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, top Obama officials who now serve under Biden made it American policy to enable and arm terrorist groups that attracted jihadi fighters from across the globe. This regime change campaign, undertaken one decade after Al Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11, helped a sworn U.S. enemy establish the Idlib safe haven that it still controls today. A concise articulation came from Jake Sullivan to his then-State Department boss Hillary Clinton in a February 2012 email: "AQ [Al Qaeda] is on our side in Syria." Sullivan, the current national security adviser, is one of many officials who oversaw the Syria proxy war under Obama to now occupy a senior post under Biden. This group includes Secretary of State Antony Blinken, climate envoy John Kerry, USAID Administrator Samantha Power, Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, NSC Middle East coordinator Brett McGurk, and State Department Counselor Derek Chollet. Their efforts to remake the Middle East via regime change, not just in Syria but earlier in Libya, led to the deaths of Americans ? including Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other U.S. officials in Benghazi in 2012; the slaughter of countless civilians; the creation of millions of refugees; and ultimately, Russia's entry into the Syrian battlefield. Contacted through their current U.S. government agencies, none of the Obama-Biden principals offered comment on their policy of supporting an Al Qaeda-dominated insurgency in Syria. The Obama-Biden team's record in Syria resonates today as many of its members handle the unfolding crisis in Ukraine. As in Syria, the U.S. is flooding a chaotic war zone with weapons in a dangerous proxy conflict against Russia, raising the threat of military confrontation between the world's top nuclear powers. "I deeply worry that what?s going to happen next is that we will see Ukraine turn into Syria," Democratic Senator Chris Coons told CBS News on April 17. Based on declassified documents, news reports, and scattered admissions of U.S. officials, this overlooked history of how the Obama-Biden team's effort to oust the Assad regime ? in concert with allies including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Turkey ? details the series of discrete decisions that ultimately led the U.S. to empower terror networks bent on its destruction. Seizing Momentum ? and Munitions ? From Libya to Pursue Regime Change in Syria The road to Al Qaeda's control of the Syrian province of Idlib actually started hundreds of miles across the Mediterranean in Libya. In March 2011, after heavy lobbying from senior officials including Secretary Hillary Clinton, President Obama authorized a bombing campaign in support of the jihadist insurgency fighting the government of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. Backed by NATO firepower, the rebels toppled Gaddafi and gruesomely murdered him in October. Buoyed by their quick success in Libya, the Obama administration set their sights on Damascus, by then a top regime change target in Washington. According to former NATO commander Wesley Clark, the Assad regime ? a key ally of U.S. foes Iran, Hezbollah, and Russia ? was marked for overthrow alongside Iraq in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. A leaked 2006 U.S. Embassy in Damascus cable assessed that Assad's "vulnerabilities" included "the potential threat to the regime from the increasing presence of transiting Islamist extremists," and detailed how the U.S. could "improve the likelihood of such opportunities arising." The outbreak of the Syrian insurgency in March 2011, coupled with the fall of Gaddafi, offered the U.S. a historic opportunity to exploit Syria's vulnerabilities. While the Arab Spring sparked peaceful Syrian protests against the ruling Ba'ath party's cronyism and repression, it also triggered a largely Sunni, rural-based revolt that took a sectarian and violent turn. The U.S. and its allies, namely Qatar and Turkey, capitalized by tapping the massive arsenal of the newly ousted Libyan government. "During the immediate aftermath of, and following the uncertainty caused by, the downfall of the [Gaddafi] regime in October 2011," the Defense Intelligence Agency reported the following year, "?weapons from the former Libya military stockpiles located in Benghazi, Libya were shipped from the port of Benghazi, Libya, to the ports of Banias and the Port of Borj Islam, Syria." The redacted DIA document, obtained by the group Judicial Watch, does not clarify whether the U.S. was directly involved in these shipments. But it contains significant clues. With remarkable specificity, it detailed the size and contents of one such shipment in August 2012: 500 sniper rifles, 100 rocket-propelled grenade launchers with 300 rounds, and 400 howitzer missiles. Most tellingly, the document noted that the weapons shipments were halted "in early September 2012." This was a clear reference to the killing by militants that month of four Americans ? Ambassador Christopher Stevens, another State Department official, and two CIA contractors ? in Benghazi, the port city where the weapons to Syria were coming from. The Benghazi annex "was at its heart a CIA operation," U.S. officials told the Wall Street Journal. At least two dozen CIA employees worked in Benghazi under diplomatic cover. Although top intelligence officials obscured the Benghazi operation in sworn testimony before the House Intelligence Committee, a Senate investigation eventually confirmed a direct CIA role in the movement of weapons from Libya to Syria. A classified version of a 2014 Senate report, not publicly released, documented an agreement between President Obama and Turkey to funnel weapons from Libya to insurgents in Syria. The operation, established in early 2012, was run by then-CIA Director David Petraeus. "The [Benghazi] consulate?s only mission was to provide cover for the moving of arms" to Syria, a former U.S. intelligence official told journalist Seymour Hersh in the London Review of Books. "It had no real political role." The Death of a U.S. Ambassador Under diplomatic cover, Stevens appears to have been a significant figure in the CIA program. More than one year before he became ambassador in June 2012, Stevens was appointed the U.S. liaison to the Libyan opposition. In this role, he worked with the Al Qaeda-tied Libyan Islamic Fighting Group and its leader, Abdelhakim Belhadj, a warlord who fought alongside Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. After Gaddafi's ouster, Belhadj was named head of the Tripoli Military Council, which controlled security in the country's capital. Belhadj's portfolio was not limited to post-coup Libya. In November 2011, the Al Qaeda ally traveled to Turkey to meet with leaders of the Free Syrian Army, the CIA-backed opposition military coalition. Belhadj's trip came as part of the new Libyan government's effort to provide "money and weapons to the growing insurgency against Bashar al-Assad," the London Telegraph reported at the time. On September 14, 2012 ? just three days after Stevens and his American colleagues were killed ? the London Times revealed that a Libyan vessel "carrying the largest consignment of weapons for Syria since the uprising began," had recently docked in the Turkish port of Iskenderun. Once unloaded, "most of its cargo is making its way to rebels on the front lines." The known details of Stevens' last hours on September 11 suggest that shipping weapons was at the top of his agenda. Although based in Tripoli and facing violent threats, he nonetheless made the dangerous trek to Benghazi around the charged anniversary of 9/11. According to a 2016 report from the House Intelligence Committee, one of Stevens' last scheduled meetings was with the head of al-Marfa Shipping and Maritime Services Company, a Libyan firm involved in ferrying weapons to Syria. His final meeting of the day was with Consul General Ali Sait Akin of Turkey, where the weapons were shipped. Fox News later reported that "Stevens was in Benghazi to negotiate a weapons transfer." With the Libyan channel shut down by Stevens' murder, the U.S. and its allies turned to other sources. One was Croatia, where Saudi Arabia financed a major weapons purchase in late 2012 that was arranged by the CIA. The CIA's use of the Saudi kingdom's vast coffers continued an arrangement from prior covert proxy wars, including the arming of the mujahideen in Afghanistan and of the Contras in Nicaragua. Although the Obama administration claimed that the weapons funneled to Syria were intended for "moderate rebels," they ultimately ended up in the hands of a jihadi-dominated insurgency. Just one month after the Benghazi attack, the New York Times reported that "hard-line Islamic jihadists," including groups "with ties or affiliations with Al Qaeda," have received "the lion?s share of the arms shipped to the Syrian opposition." Covertly Arming An Al Qaeda-Dominated Insurgency The Obama administration did not need media accounts to learn that jihadists dominated the Syrian insurgency on the receiving end of a CIA supply chain. One month before the Benghazi attack, Pentagon intelligence analysts gave the White House a blunt appraisal. An August 2012 Defense Intelligence Agency report, disseminated widely among U.S. officials, noted that "Salafi[s], the Muslim Brotherhood, and AQI [Al Qaeda in Iraq] are the major forces driving the insurgency." Al Qaeda, the report stressed, "supported the Syrian opposition from the beginning." Their aim was to create a "Salafist principality in eastern Syria" ? an early warning of the ISIS caliphate that would be established two years later. General Michael Flynn, who headed the DIA at the time, later recalled that his staff "got enormous pushback" from the Obama White House. "I felt that they did not want to hear the truth," Flynn said. In 2015, one year after Flynn was forced out, dozens of Pentagon intelligence analysts signed on to a complaint alleging that top Pentagon intelligence officials were "cooking the books" to paint a rosier picture of the jihadi presence in Syria. (The Pentagon later cleared CENTCOM commanders of wrongdoing.) The Free Syrian Army (FSA), the main CIA-backed insurgent force, also informed Obama officials of the jihadi dominance in their ranks. "From the reports we get from the doctors," FSA officials told the State Department in November 2012, "most of the injured and dead FSA are Jabhat al-Nusra, due to their courage and [the fact they are] always at the front line." Jabhat al-Nusra (Al-Nusra Front) is Al Qaeda's franchise in Syria. It emerged as a splinter group of Al Qaeda in Iraq after a falling out between AQI leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and his then-deputy, Mohammed al-Jolani. In 2013, Baghdadi relaunched his organization under the name of Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Jolani led his Syria-based Al Qaeda faction under the black flag of al-Nusra. "[W]hile rarely acknowledged explicitly in public," Charles Lister, a Gulf state-funded analyst in close contact with Syrian insurgent groups wrote in March 2015, "the vast majority of the Syrian insurgency has coordinated closely with Al-Qaeda since mid-2012 ? and to great effect on the battlefield." As one Free Syrian Army leader told the New York Times: "No FSA faction in the north can operate without al-Nusra?s approval." According to David McCloskey, a former CIA analyst who covered Syria in the war's early years, U.S. officials knew that "al-Qaeda affiliated groups and Salafi jihadist groups were the primary engine of the insurgency." This, McCloskey says, was "a tremendously problematic aspect of the conflict." In his memoir, senior Obama aide Ben Rhodes acknowledged that al-Nusra "was probably the strongest fighting force within the opposition." It was also clear, he wrote, that U.S.-backed insurgent groups were "fighting side by side with al-Nusra." For this reason, Rhodes recalled, he argued against the State Department's December 2012 designation of al-Nusra as a foreign terrorist organization. This move "would alienate the same people we want to help." (Asked about wanting to help an Al Qaeda-dominated insurgency, Rhodes did not respond). In fact, designating al-Nusra as a terror organization allowed the Obama administration to publicly claim that it opposed Al Qaeda's Syria branch while continuing to covertly arm the insurgency that it dominated. Three months after adding al-Nusra to the terrorism list, the U.S. and its allies "dramatically stepped up weapons supplies to Syrian rebels" to help "rebels to try and seize Damascus," the Associated Press reported in March 2013. 'There Was No Moderate Middle' Despite being privately aware of Nusra's dominance, Obama administration officials continued to publicly insist that the U.S. was only supporting Syria's "moderate opposition," as then-Deputy National Security Adviser Antony Blinken described it in September 2014. But speaking to a Harvard audience days later, then-Vice President Biden blurted out the concealed reality. In the Syrian insurgency, "there was no moderate middle," Biden admitted. Instead, U.S. "allies" in Syria "poured hundreds of millions of dollars and thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad." Those weapons were supplied, Biden said, to "al-Nusra, and Al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis coming from other parts of the world." Aaron Mat? @aaronjmate Biden on Syria, 2014: US allies "poured hundreds of millions of dollars & tens?thousands of tons of weapons into anyone who would fight against Assad. Except that the people who were being supplied were... Al-Qaeda and the extremist elements of jihadis." June 8th 2021 556 Retweets1,263 Likes Biden quickly apologized for his comments, which appeared to fit the classic definition of the Kinsley gaffe: a politician inadvertently telling the truth. Biden's only error was omitting his administration's critical role in helping its allies arm the jihadis. Rather than shut down a CIA program that was aiding the Al Qaeda-dominated insurgency, Obama expanded it. In April 2013, the president signed an order that amended the CIA's covert war, codenamed Timber Sycamore, to allow direct U.S. arming and training. After tapping Saudi Arabia, Turkey, and Qatar to fund its arms pipeline for insurgents inside Syria, Obama's order allowed the CIA to directly furnish U.S.-made weapons. Just as with the regime change campaign in Libya, a key architect of this operation was Hillary Clinton. Obama's upgraded proxy war in Syria proved to be "one of the costliest covert action programs in the history of the C.I.A.," the New York Times reported in 2017. Documents leaked by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed a budget of nearly $1 billion per year, or around $1 of every $15 in CIA spending. The CIA armed and trained nearly 10,000 insurgents, spending "roughly $100,000 per year for every anti-Assad rebel who has gone through the program," U.S. officials told the Washington Post in 2015. Two years later, one U.S. official estimated that CIA-funded militias "may have killed or wounded 100,000 Syrian soldiers and their allies over the past four years." But these militias were not just killing pro-Syrian government forces. As the New York Times reported in April 2017, US-backed insurgents carried out "sectarian mass murder." One such act of mass murder came in August 2013, when the U.S.-backed Free Syrian Army joined an al-Nusra and ISIS offensive on Alawite areas of Latakia. A Human Rights Investigation found that the insurgents engaged in "the systematic killing of entire families," slaughtering a documented 190 civilians, including 57 women, 18 children, and 14 elderly men. In a video from the field, former Syrian army general Salim Idriss, head of the U.S.-backed Supreme Military Council (SMC), bragged that "we are cooperating to a great extent in this operation." The Latakia massacres came four months after the U.S. ambassador to Syria, Robert Ford, hailed Idriss and his fighters as "the moderate and responsible elements of the armed opposition." The role of Idriss's forces in the slaughter did not cancel the administration's endorsement. In October, the Washington Post revealed that the "CIA is expanding a clandestine effort ? aimed at shoring up the fighting power of units aligned with the Supreme Military Council, an umbrella organization led by [Idriss] that is the main recipient of U.S. support." [In an emailed response to questions about U.S. policy in Syria, Ford says that there was ?no question? that Free Syrian Army engaged in war crimes but noted, ?We denounced [them] publicly at the time and in private.? Ford said the administration?s official stance that moderates were engaged in the fight was accurate in light of the facts on the ground. "Our definition of moderates in the armed opposition,? he wrote, ?were people willing to negotiate a peaceful end to the war."] Officially, the upgraded CIA program barred direct support to al-Nusra or its allies in Syria. But once U.S. weapons arrived in Syria, the Obama administration recognized that it had no way of controlling their use ? an apparent motive for waging the program covertly. "We needed plausible deniability in case the arms got into the hands of al-Nusra," a former senior administration official told the New York Times in 2013. Insurgents use US-made TOW missiles against Syrian forces in Northern Aleppo, July 2016 (Ahmed Ebu Bera/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images) One area where U.S. arms got into al-Nusra's hands was the northwestern Syrian province of Idlib. 'Al-Qaeda's Largest Safe Haven Since 9/11' In May 2015, an array of insurgent groups, dubbed the Jaish al-Fatah ("Army of Conquest") coalition, captured Idlib province from the Syrian government. The fight was led by al-Nusra, and showcased what Charles Lister, the D.C.-based analyst with contacts to insurgents in Syria, dubbed "a far improved level of coordination" between rival militants, including the U.S.-backed FSA and multiple "jihadist factions." For Lister, the conquest of Idlib also revealed that the U.S. and its allies "changed their tune regarding coordination with Islamists." Citing multiple battlefield commanders, Lister reported that "the U.S.-led operations room in southern Turkey," which coordinated support to U.S.-backed insurgent groups, "was instrumental in facilitating their involvement in the operation" led by al-Nusra. While the insurgents' U.S.-led command had previously opposed "any direct coordination" with jihadist groups, the Idlib offensive "demonstrated something different," Lister concluded: To capture the province, U.S. officials "specifically encouraged a closer cooperation with Islamists commanding frontline operations." The U.S.-approved battlefield cooperation in Idlib allowed al-Nusra fighters to directly benefit from U.S. weapons. Despite occasional flare-ups between them, al-Nusra was able to use U.S.-backed insurgent groups "as force multipliers," the Institute for the Study of War, a prominent D.C. think tank, observed when the battle began. Insurgent military gains, Foreign Policy reported in April 2015, were achieved "thanks in large part to suicide bombers and American anti-tank TOW missiles." The jihadist-led victory in Idlib quickly subjected its residents to sectarian terror. In June 2015, al-Nusra fighters massacred at least 20 members of the Druze faith. Hundreds of villagers spared in the attack were forced to convert to Sunni Islam. Facing the same threats, nearly all of Idlib's remaining 1,200 Christians fled the province, leaving a Christian population that reportedly totals just three people today. In a 2017 post-mortem on the Obama administration's covert war in Syria, the New York Times described the insurgents' conquest of Idlib as among the CIA program's "periods of success." This was certainly the case for Al Qaeda. "Idlib Province," Brett McGurk, the anti-ISIS envoy under Obama and Trump, and now Biden's top White House official for the Middle East, said in 2017, "is the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11." Aaron Mat? @aaronjmate ISIS leader al-Qhurayshi was killed in a Feb. 3 US raid in Idlib. Overlooked is that this Al Qaeda enclave was conquered with US support. Now, as senior Biden official Brett McGurk said in 2017: "Idlib is the the largest Al Qaeda safe haven since 9/11." April 20th 2022 U.S. Allows ISIS Takeover Al Qaeda is not the only sectarian death squad that managed to establish a safe haven in the chaos of the Syria proxy war. Starting in 2013, al-Nusra's sister-turned-rival group, ISIS, seized considerable territory of its own. As with Al Qaeda, ISIS' land-grab in Syria received a significant backdoor assist from Washington. Before Al Qaeda captured Idlib, the first ISIS stronghold in Syria, Raqqa, grew out of a similar alliance between U.S.-backed "moderate rebels" and jihadis. After this coalition seized the city from the Syrian government in March 2013, ISIS took full control in November. When ISIS declared its caliphate in parts of Syria and Iraq in June 2014, the U.S. launched an air campaign against the group's strongholds. But the Obama administration's anti-ISIS offensive contained a significant exception. In key areas where ISIS?s advance could threaten the Assad regime, the U.S. watched it happen. In April 2015, just as al-Nusra was conquering Idlib, ISIS seized major parts of the Yarmouk refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, marking what the New York Times called the group's "greatest inroads yet" into the Syrian capital. In the ancient city of Palmyra, the U.S. allowed an outright ISIS takeover. "[A]s Islamic State closed in on Palmyra, the U.S.-led aerial coalition that has been pummeling Islamic State in Syria for the past 18 months took no action to prevent the extremists? advance toward the historic town ? which, until then, had remained in the hands of the sorely overstretched Syrian security forces," the Los Angeles Times reported in March 2016. In a leaked conversation with Syrian opposition activists months later, then-Secretary of State John Kerry explained the U.S. rationale for letting ISIS advance. "Daesh [ISIS] was threatening the possibility of going to Damascus and so forth," Kerry explained. "And we know that this was growing. We were watching. We saw that Daesh was growing in strength, and we thought Assad was threatened. We thought, however, we could probably manage, that Assad would then negotiate" his way out of power. In short, the U.S. was leveraging ISIS's growth to impose regime change on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The U.S. strategy of "watching" ISIS's advance in Syria, Kerry also admitted, directly caused Russia's 2015 entry into the conflict. The threat of an ISIS takeover, Kerry said, is "why Russia went in. Because they didn?t want a Daesh government." Aaron Mat? @aaronjmate In 2016, John Kerry privately admitted that the US "watched" ISIS spread in Syria in the hopes they could leverage that to oust Assad. Russia intervened in Syria, he said, "because they didn?t want a Daesh [ISIS] government." April 20th 2022 3 Retweets6 Likes Russia's military intervention in Syria prevented the ISIS government in Damascus that Kerry and fellow Obama administration principals had been willing to risk. Pulverizing Russian airstrikes also dealt a fatal blow to the Al Qaeda-dominated insurgency that the Obama team had spent billions of dollars to support. From U.S. Enemy to 'Asset' in Syria With U.S.-backed fighters vanquished and one of their main champions, Hillary Clinton, defeated in the November 2016 election, the CIA operation in Syria met what the New York Times called a "sudden death." After criticizing the proxy war in Syria on the campaign trail, President Trump shut down the Timber Sycamore program for good in July 2017. "It turns out it?s ? a lot of al-Qaeda we?re giving these weapons to," Trump told the Wall Street Journal that month. With the exit of the Obama-Biden team, the U.S. was no longer fighting on Al Qaeda's side. But that did not mean that the U.S. was prepared to confront the enemy that it had helped install in Idlib. While Trump put an end to the CIA proxy war, his efforts to further extricate the U.S. from Syria by withdrawing troops were thwarted by senior officials who shared the preceding administration's regime change goals. "When President Trump said 'I want everybody out of Syria,' the top brass at Pentagon and State had aneurysms," Christopher Miller, the Acting Secretary of Defense during Trump's last months in office, recalls. Jim Jeffrey, Trump's envoy for Syria, admitted to deceiving the president in order to keep in place "a lot more than" the 200 U.S. troops that Trump had reluctantly agreed to. "We were always playing shell games to not make clear to our leadership how many troops we had there," Jeffrey told Defense One. Those "shell games" have put U.S. soldiers in harm's way, including four servicemembers recently wounded in a rocket attack on their base in northeastern Syria. While thwarting a full U.S. troop withdrawal, Jeffrey and other senior officials have also preserved the U.S. government's tacit alliance with Idlib's Al-Qaeda rulers. Officially, al-Nusra remains on the U.S. terrorism list. Despite several name changes, the State Department has dismissed its rebranding efforts as a "vehicle to advance its position in the Syrian uprising and to further its own goals as an al-Qa?ida affiliate." But in practice, as Jeffrey explained last year, the U.S. has treated Al-Nusra as "an asset" to U.S. strategy in Syria. "They are the least bad option of the various options on Idlib, and Idlib is one of the most important places in Syria, which is one of the most important places right now in the Middle East," he said. Jeffrey also revealed that he had communicated with al-Nusra leader Mohammed al-Jolani via "indirect channels." Jeffrey's comments underscore a profound shift in the U.S. government's Middle East strategy as a result of the Syria proxy war: The Syrian branch of Al Qaeda, the terror group that attacked the U.S. on 9/11, and which then became the target of a global war on terror aimed at destroying it, is no longer seen by powerful officials in Washington as an enemy, but an "asset." Since retaking office under Biden, the Obama veterans who targeted Syria with one of the most expensive covert wars in history have deprioritized the war-torn nation. While pledging to maintain crippling sanctions and keep U.S. troops at multiple bases, as well as announcing sporadic airstrikes, the White House has otherwise said little publicly about its Syria policy. The U.S. military raid that ended ISIS leader al-Qurayshi?s life in February prompted the only Syria-focused speech of Biden's presidency. While Biden trumpeted the lethal operation, the fact that it occurred in Idlib underscores a contradiction that his administration has yet to address. By taking out an ISIS leader in Al Qaeda's Syria stronghold, the president and his top officials are now confronting threats from a terror safe haven that they helped create. ###