[Peace-discuss] Notes

Fri Mar 6 00:45:21 UTC 2020

War: Afghanistan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUgXeR3lZNI -- 18 years of war in Afghanistan (2 more 
years and that war gets a gold watch!). US-Taliban deal is drafted.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MQS8WZ_i4S0 -- Afghanistan objects to proposed 
prisoner swap which is part of US-Taliban deal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3QRxH4KU3M4 -- Why US-Taliban peace deal may fail.

War: Africa

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFj4mIXkC3I -- Formerly-secret data discloses US 
military bases in Africa. "I bless the rains down in Africa." --Toto

Media

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sje8Gp-FVsM -- Employees of Sputnik Turkey are freed 
after a brief detention. Just like the "resistance" from MSNBC, CNN, PBS, ABC, CBS, 
et al, right?

Media/Assange: Jeffrey St. Clair raises some good points in the most recent "Roaming 
Charges":

https://www.counterpunch.org/2020/02/28/roaming-charges-get-bernie/

> In response to criticism from Democratic Party centrists that Sanders didn’t do
> enough to help Hillary in 2016, the Sandernistas are touting the fact that Sanders
> did 3 times as many campaign events for Hillary as Hillary did for Obama in 2008.
> I guess that’s one way to look at it. The other is: why the hell was Bernie
> campaigning for Hillary, the walking distillation of every neoliberal policy he
> purports to loathe, at all?

Because Sanders is a sheepdog, not a candidate who seriously challenges the 
establishment. His goal is to draw you into the Democratic Party to keep that party 
alive, not to make that party deliver the policies that will help your life. So much 
of what the late Bruce Dixon wrote in 
https://www.blackagendareport.com/bernie-sanders-sheepdog-4-hillary still applies.

> Only a few months ago, the New York Times was busy denying the existence of a
> “Democratic Party Establishment.” Now these shadowy powerbrokers have stepped into
> the daylight, knives out to gut Bernie Sanders at all costs, even if it means the
> re-election of Trump and the opening of an ideological schism inside the party
> that may (and perhaps should) never heal.

That schism will be a welcome opportunity to get people to focus more on policy and 
how much the Democrats work with the Republicans to prevent the kind of policies most 
Americans need (national jobs program, UBI, Medicare for All, ending US wars, 
bringing troops/contractors & weapons home, etc.).

> One scheme being openly floated by these would-be kingmakers is to hobble Sanders
> enough in the primaries that he is denied a majority of delegates on the first
> ballot at the convention, whereupon Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown rides in as a
> “white knight” candidate with Michele Obama riding shotgun as his VP candidate.
> Really…

Rania Khalek addressed a related issue in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MNAobiUlh2U 
and her response makes sense: (paraphrasing) this is why there are so many candidates 
still in that race: if candidates can give their delegates to another candidate, they 
can pick an acceptable neocon/neolib (say, Buttigieg, Biden, or Warren) and that 
candidate can end up with more delegates than Sanders. Nearly quoting Khalek, 'One 
candidate can't beat Sanders, but 6 can.'. It looks like she's right: recent 
Democratic Party dropouts have endorsed Biden. Her interview took place before some 
of the dropouts, but I think her point remains valid -- many neocon/neolib defenders 
working together against someone perceived as a threat to those interests (I question 
how much of a threat Sanders really is to those interests, but I concur that the 
perception of threat is there both amongst the elites and Sanders supporters).

> Biden said a few hours before the South Carolina debate that he was running for US
> Senate: And if you don’t like me, vote for the other Biden!”  The other Biden? The
> demyelination process is almost complete…

The Democrats would rather lose to Trump than win with Sanders. Biden is a proven 
neocon/neolib who will go along with the permanent government (like Weak Donald Trump 
has) rather than challenge (as Sanders is expected to be and, I believe, wouldn't if 
elected). It might be entertaining to watch "Sleepy Joe" (as Trump calls Joe Biden) 
debate Trump though.

> In audio at a closed door event at in June 2016, Mike Bloomberg said his
> presidential campaign platform would be to “defend the banks,” joked about droning
> his personal enemies, and called the progressive movement and Elizabeth Warren
> “scary.”

Speaking of droning one's enemies, we find those who endorse such behavior keep such 
good company -- Hillary Clinton is reported to have once asked "Can't we just drone 
this guy [Julian Assange]?" regarding WikiLeaks' Editor-in-Chief (per 
https://truepundit.com/under-intense-pressure-to-silence-wikileaks-secretary-of-state-hillary-clinton-proposed-drone-strike-on-julian-assange/).

> Clinton’s State Department was getting pressure from President Obama and his White
> House inner circle, as well as heads of state internationally, to try and cutoff
> Assange’s delivery of the cables and if that effort failed, then to forge a
> strategy to minimize the administration’s public embarrassment over the contents
> of the cables. Hence, Clinton’s early morning November meeting of State’s top
> brass who floated various proposals to stop, slow or spin the Wikileaks
> contamination. That is when a frustrated Clinton, sources said, at some point
> blurted out a controversial query.
>
> “Can’t we just drone this guy?” Clinton openly inquired, offering a simple remedy
> to silence Assange and smother Wikileaks via a planned military drone strike,
> according to State Department sources. The statement drew laughter from the room
> which quickly died off when the Secretary kept talking in a terse manner, sources
> said. Clinton said Assange, after all, was a relatively soft target, “walking
> around” freely and thumbing his nose without any fear of reprisals from the United
> States. Clinton was upset about Assange’s previous 2010 records releases,
> divulging secret U.S. documents about the war in Afghanistan in July and the war
> in Iraq just a month earlier in October, sources said. At that time in 2010,
> Assange was relatively free and not living cloistered in in the embassy of Ecuador
> in London. Prior to 2010, Assange focused Wikileaks’ efforts on countries outside
> the United States but now under Clinton and Obama, Assange was hammering America
> with an unparalleled third sweeping Wikileaks document dump in five months.
> Clinton was fuming, sources said, as each State Department cable dispatched during
> the Obama administration was signed by her.

https://on.rt.com/7qwj RT has more:

> After Clinton’s drone suggestion, the state department considered offering a
> reward to anyone whose help secured the Australian journalist’s capture and
> extradition to the US. Unnamed sources reported a $10 million price was discussed
> at the meeting.
>
> Following the meeting, Clinton aide Ann-Marie Slaughter emailed Clinton and aides
> Cheryl Mills, Huma Abedin and Jake Sullivan with the subject, "RE an SP memo on
> possible legal and nonlegal strategies re Wikileaks."
>
> The email contained an attachment "SP Wikileaks doc final11.23.10.docx." which has
> not been found by federal investigators investigating Clinton’s use of a private
> email server. Wikileaks itself does not have this attachment.
>
> Five days after the meeting, Wikileaks began releasing the CableGate files, on
> November 28, 2010.

But that's just anti-war rhetoric, right Rep. Tulsi 'surgical strikes' Gabbard?

Assange extradition hearing news, reports from people on the scene:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RlRafBoXaCs -- interview with Taylor Hudak, 
co-founder of "Action 4 Assange". Hudak said more corporate journalists are showing 
support for Assange now. Hudak saw CNN present on the first day of Assange's 
extradition hearing outside the courtroom where that hearing and many protests are 
being held. But it remains clear that alternative media, not corporate media, is the 
go-to source for Assange news because alternative media "did a really excellent job 
covering this case and highlighting what was taking place inside the courtroom and 
outside the courtroom".

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/ -- Craig Murray's blog features excellent day-by-day 
coverage of events, highly recommended reading for a number of relevant issues 
including the Assange extradition hearing (look for the "Your Man in the Public 
Gallery" posts and posts featuring the word "Assange").

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRCw9NKx_QU -- RT interview with John Shipton, Julian 
Assange's father.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WABEIKPmTkM -- RT's report on "The US vs Julian 
Assange: Why Washington hates him".

Healthcare: Medicare for All remains popular nationwide -- "In Every Super Tuesday 
State With Exit Polls, Majority of Democratic Voters Support Eliminating Private 
Health Insurance"

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/04/every-super-tuesday-state-exit-polls-majority-democratic-voters-support-eliminating
https://twitter.com/Politics_Polls/status/1233939289458839554

> Edison Research exit poll results from Maine, North Carolina, and Virginia showed
> majority support for eliminating private insurance in favor of a universal
> government plan.
> 
> Results from every other Super Tuesday state—with the exception of Utah and
> Arkansas, where Edison did not conduct exit polls—followed the early trend,
> delivering the clearest indication of the 2020 election season that scrapping
> America's wasteful and deadly private insurance system is not as "radical" or
> unpalatable a proposal as some politicians and pundits like to claim.
> 
> Democratic voters in Vermont, the home state of presidential hopeful and Medicare
> for All champion Sen. Bernie Sanders, supported eliminating private insurance by
> the widest margin.
> 
>     A government plan for all instead of private insurance,
>     Support/Oppose:
>     VT: 73%/23%
>     ME: 69%/28%
>     TX: 63%/33%
>     MN: 62%/35%
>     CO: 57%/36%
>     CA: 57%/36%
>     NC: 55%/41%
>     OK: 53%/43%
>     TN: 52%/44%
>     AL: 51%/43%
>     VA: 52%/45%
>     MA: 50%/45%

Skripal poisoning anniversary: What do we know for sure? What more do we know?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ruXGk2lRFi0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K8tBHho2YMo -- A compelling summary of events to date.

Former PM May's "highly likely" accusation against Russia in the Skripal poisoning 
investigation is almost completely evidenceless and that accusation fueled Russiagate 
speculation. Neither the OPCW nor Porton Down (the UK lab near Salisbury) could 
confirm the origin of the poison used against the Skripals (father Sergey & daughter 
Yulia). The chemical agent involved was identified as one of the so-called "novichok" 
(Russian for "newcomer") nerve agents by Gary Aitkenhead, Chief Executive of the UK 
government's Defense and Science Technology Lab.

> Gary Aitkenhead: We were able to identify it as novichok, to identify it was a
> military-grade nerve agent. We have not verified the precise source but we have
> provided the scientific information to the [UK] government, who have then used a
> number of other sources to piece together the conclusions that they have come to.
This substance is said to be one of the most deadly (a tiny amount one could easily 
carry with them could kill many grown men). However:

- novichok production was said to have stopped in Russia in 1992.
- novichok was studied in a number of other countries including the Czech Republic, 
Sweden, Slovakia, and some suspect the UK.
- novichok formulae were published widely and readily available to all.

- Russia's offer for a joint investigation was rejected by the UK. Russia was blocked 
from access to information from the OPCW probe.

- Coincidentally a British Army Nurse just happened to be on the scene, with her 
daughter, in the park where the Skripals were found slumped over on a park bench. The 
nurse and her daughter wore no protective gear, suffered no symptoms, and 
administered first aid to the Skripals.

- The number of people who did not die from exposure to this allegedly "military 
grade" poison are remarkably high: 2 Skripals, the nurse and her daughter, and a 
local policeman all of whom had contact with the Skripals. The Skripals and the 
policeman were ill for a time but treated and eventually released.

- Yulia Skripal issued one statement through the British police and appeared in one 
TV interview where she asks for no one to contact her. Yulia has been seen since her 
recovery, her father has not. As the RT report says, "Both Skripals have since 
disappeared without a trace.".

- Yulia's cousin Victoria had a brief phone conversation with her:

> Victoria: It was clear she [Yulia] was speaking someone else's words. It could not
> be heard on the phone, but I heard someone say 'You can talk'. Somebody dialed my 
> number for her because she clearly didn't remember my cell number. Logically, she 
> had to call my home number but for some reason she phoned my cell phone.

Victoria had her UK visa applications repeatedly rejected.

-J