From susanroseparenti at gmail.com Fri Oct 2 14:09:23 2020 From: susanroseparenti at gmail.com (Susan Parenti) Date: Fri, 2 Oct 2020 09:09:23 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Sat, 2-3 FOG (Friends of Geese) Celebrates our Organization's Birth--attend by Zoom or by physical presence Message-ID: I hope you are as well as can be! We have good news?those of us who attempted to save the 175 Canada geese in our park in June?and failed to do so?are turning that experience into a new organization: a community non profit we're calling F.O.G. (Friends of Geese!) Its mission is to support and protect the Grand Canada Geese by educating and involving people in the community to learn how?in a hands-on- way?to do so. That means YOU! We invite you to celebrate with us in our ribbon-cutting event on *Saturday, Oct. 3, 2-3pm.* You can celebrate with us via Zoom, OR else physically be present in- a safe-and-fun-outdoor-commemoration at our *School for Designing a *Society *at 122 Franklin Street, Urbana. T*here will be speeches (here here!) and geese music (hear hear!),and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in honor of the Crystal Lake Park geese (wow!) Write us if you would like the ZOOM link. We will send it ASAP susanroseparenti at gmail.com Or come by (with mask and social distancing) at 2pm at 122 Franklin Street in Urbana! Warmly Susan [image: IMG_2516.JPG] *Susan Parenti* *Educational Coordinator * *The School for Designing a Society *www.designingasociety.net *Like us on Facebook !* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: IMG_2516.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 2704418 bytes Desc: not available URL: From susanroseparenti at gmail.com Sat Oct 3 14:27:49 2020 From: susanroseparenti at gmail.com (Susan Parenti) Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2020 09:27:49 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Celebrate the Birth of FOG (friends of Geese) TODAY, Sat, 2-3pm; & ZOOM LINK Message-ID: Hello friend-- We have good news?those of us who attempted to save the 175 Canada geese in our park in June?and failed to do so?are turning that experience into a new organization: a community non profit we're calling F.O.G. (Friends of Geese!) Its mission is to support and protect the Grand Canada Geese by educating and involving people in the community to learn how?in a hands-on- way?to do so. That means YOU! We invite you to celebrate with us in our ribbon-cutting event TODAY, *Saturday, Oct. 3, 2-3pm.* You can celebrate with us via Zoom, OR else physically be present in- a safe-and-fun-outdoor-commemoration at our *School for Designing a *Society *at 122 Franklin Street, Urbana. T*here will be speeches (here here!) and geese music (hear hear!),and the unveiling of a commemorative plaque in honor of the Crystal Lake Park geese (wow!) *Zoom Link to Register for this meeting:* https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMtce2oqjstH9SiqVWxgZRkuQAAi63HHsxR After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting. Or come by (with mask and social distancing) at 2pm at 122 Franklin Street in Urbana! Warmly Susan [image: image.png] -- *Susan Parenti* *Educational Coordinator * *The School for Designing a Society *www.designingasociety.net *Like us on Facebook !* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: image.png Type: image/png Size: 148412 bytes Desc: not available URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Sun Oct 4 04:28:05 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Sat, 3 Oct 2020 23:28:05 -0500 Subject: [Peace] AOTA/NFN timeslot recommendations Message-ID: <52d1d3bd-d84c-593e-3c8c-4135342bb1de@forestfield.org> Here's another batch of recommendations for AWARE on the Air and News from Neptune timeslots which I've sent to UPTV's Jason Liggett. As before, I've said that if there are other AWARE/NFN folks with recommendations for these timeslots, please prioritize their recommendations above mine. Thanks so much to Jason for running these videos. -J Grayzone https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7a-z65ForXU -- (20m 39s) Aaron Mat? interviews Ali Abunimah (https://electronicintifada.net/) about Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) reevaluating an invitation to speak at an event celebrating Yitzhak Rabin, former Israeli politician, statesman and general who died in 1995. There is good analysis of Rabin's legacy, AOC's politics, and who in power actually speaks in support of Palestinian rights. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9thPJW9wgOo -- (16m 41s) Aaron Mat?'s testimony to the UN about the OPCW coverup. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxRMG9B8hgU -- (20m 18s) "Red Lines" with Anya Parampil: US military seeks to "create new base in Syria" - Syrian journalist RT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=COoRi3g-tyw -- (26m 43s) Sophie Shevardnadze interviews Richard Stallman on safety & privacy and the false dichotomy that encourages us to think that we must give up privacy to gain safety. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZtwpzqAJMBo -- (26m 44s) "On Contact" with Chris Hedges, Hedges interviews Craig Murray on the Assange extradition hearing Black Agenda Report https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18mqGgDKgvk -- (44m 19s) Left Lens episode 16 -- Why the US is the World's Worst Human Rights Abuser From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Oct 5 14:08:12 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2020 07:08:12 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Article by Jean Bricmont from 2012. Message-ID: One might wonder why I, given my lack of comprehension related to physics, having no idea what quantum mechanics are, keep posting statements on FB by Jean Bricmont, below is the article that tells me he is worth following??? ? DECEMBER 4, 2012 Beware the Anti-Anti-War Left BY JEAN BRICMONT Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Louvain, Belgium. Ever since the 1990s, and especially since the Kosovo war in 1999, anyone who opposes armed interventions by Western powers and NATO has to confront what may be called an anti-anti-war left (including its far left segment). In Europe, and notably in France, this anti-anti-war left is made up of the mainstream of social democracy, the Green parties and most of the radical left. The anti-anti-war left does not come out openly in favor of Western military interventions and even criticizes them at times (but usually only for their tactics or alleged motivations ? the West is supporting a just cause, but clumsily and for oil or for geo-strategic reasons). But most of its energy is spent issuing ?warnings? against the supposed dangerous drift of that part of the left that remains firmly opposed to such interventions. It calls upon us to show solidarity with the ?victims? against ?dictators who kill their own people?, and not to give in to knee-jerk anti-imperialism, anti-Americanism, or anti-Zionism, and above all not to end up on the same side as the far right. After the Kosovo Albanians in 1999, we have been told that ?we? must protect Afghan women, Iraqi Kurds and more recently the people of Libya and of Syria. It cannot be denied that the anti-anti-war left has been extremely effective. The Iraq war, which was sold to the public as a fight against an imaginary threat, did indeed arouse a fleeting opposition, but there has been very little opposition on the left to interventions presented as ?humanitarian?, such as the bombing of Yugoslavia to detach the province of Kosovo, the bombing of Libya to get rid of Gaddafi, or the current intervention in Syria. Any objections to the revival of imperialism or in favor of peaceful means of dealing with such conflicts have simply been brushed aside by invocations of ?R2P?, the right or responsibility to protect, or the duty to come to the aid of a people in danger. The fundamental ambiguity of the anti-anti-war left lies in the question as to who are the ?we? who are supposed to intervene and protect. One might ask the Western left, social movements or human rights organizations the same question Stalin addressed to the Vatican, ?How many divisions do you have?? As a matter of fact, all the conflicts in which ?we? are supposed to intervene are armed conflicts. Intervening means intervening militarily and for that, one needs the appropriate military means. It is perfectly obvious that the Western left does not possess those means. It could call on European armies to intervene, instead of the United States, but they have never done so without massive support from the United States. So in reality the actual message of the anti-anti-war left is: ?Please, oh Americans, make war not love!? Better still, inasmuch as since their debacle in Afghanistan and in Iraq, the Americans are leery of sending in ground troops, the message amounts to nothing other than asking the U.S. Air Force to go bomb countries where human rights violations are reported to be taking place. Of course, anyone is free to claim that human rights should henceforth be entrusted to the good will of the U.S. government, its bombers, its missile launchers and its drones. But it is important to realize that that is the concrete meaning of all those appeals for ?solidarity? and ?support? to rebel or secessionist movements involved in armed struggles. Those movements have no need of slogans shouted during ?demonstrations of solidarity? in Brussels or in Paris, and that is not what they are asking for. They want to get heavy weapons and see their enemies bombed. The anti-anti-war left, if it were honest, should be frank about this choice, and openly call on the United States to go bomb wherever human rights are violated; but then it should accept the consequences. In fact, the political and military class that is supposed to save the populations ?massacred by their dictators? is the same one that waged the Vietnam war, that imposed sanctions and wars on Iraq, that imposes arbitrary sanctions on Cuba, Iran and any other country that meets with their disfavor, that provides massive unquestioning support to Israel, which uses every means including coups d??tat to oppose social reformers in Latin America, from Arbenz to Chavez by way of Allende, Goulart and others, and which shamelessly exploits workers and resources the world over. One must be quite starry-eyed to see in that political and military class the instrument of salvation of ?victims?, but that is in practice exactly what the anti-anti-war left is advocating, because, given the relationship of forces in the world, there is no other military force able to impose its will. Of course, the U.S. government is scarcely aware of the existence of the anti-anti-war left. The United States decides whether or not to wage war according to the chances of succeeding and to their own assessment of their strategic, political and economic interests. And once a war is begun, they want to win at all costs. It makes no sense to ask them to carry out only good interventions, against genuine villains, using gentle methods that spare civilians and innocent bystanders. For example, those who call for ?saving Afghan women? are in fact calling on the United States to intervene and, among other things, bomb Afghan civilians and shoot drones at Pakistan. It makes no sense to ask them to protect but not to bomb, because armies function by shooting and bombing.[1] A favorite theme of the anti-anti-war left is to accuse those who reject military intervention of ?supporting the dictator?, meaning the leader of the currently targeted country. The problem is that every war is justified by a massive propaganda effort which is based on demonizing the enemy, especially the enemy leader. Effectively opposing that propaganda requires contextualizing the crimes attributed to the enemy and comparing them to those of the side we are supposed to support. That task is necessary but risky; the slightest mistake will be endlessly used against us, whereas all the lies of the pro-war propaganda are soon forgotten. Already, during the First World War, Bertrand Russell and British pacifists were accused of ?supporting the enemy?. But if they denounced Allied propaganda, it was not out of love for the German Kaiser, but in the cause of peace. The anti-anti-war left loves to denounce the ?double standards? of coherent pacifists who criticize the crimes of their own side more sharply than those attributed to the enemy of the moment (Milosevic, Gaddafi, Assad, and so on), but this is only the necessary result of a deliberate and legitimate choice: to counter the war propaganda of our own media and political leaders (in the West), propaganda which is based on constant demonization of the enemy under attack accompanied by idealization of the attacker. The anti-anti-war left has no influence on American policy, but that doesn?t mean that it has no effect. Its insidious rhetoric has served to neutralize any peace or anti-war movement. It has also made it impossible for any European country to take such an independent position as France took under De Gaulle, or even Chirac, or as Sweden did with Olof Palme. Today such a position would be instantly attacked by the anti-anti-war left, which is echoed by European media, as ?support to dictators?, another ?Munich?, or ?the crime of indifference?. What the anti-anti-war left has managed to accomplish is to destroy the sovereignty of Europeans in regard to the United States and to eliminate any independent left position concerning war and imperialism. It has also led most of the European left to adopt positions in total contradiction with those of the Latin American left and to consider as adversaries countries such as China and Russia which seek to defend international law, as indeed they should. When the media announce that a massacre is imminent, we hear at times that action is ?urgent? to save the alleged future victims, and time cannot be lost making sure of the facts. This may be true when a building is on fire in one?s own neighborhood, but such urgency regarding other countries ignores the manipulation of information and just plain error and confusion that dominate foreign news coverage. Whatever the political crisis abroad, the instant ?we must do something? reflex brushes aside serious reflection on the left as to what might be done instead of military intervention. What sort of independent investigation could be carried out to understand the causes of conflict and potential solutions? What can be the role of diplomacy? The prevailing images of immaculate rebels, dear to the left from its romanticizing of past conflicts, especially the Spanish Civil War, blocks reflection. It blocks realistic assessment of the relationship of forces as well as the causes of armed rebellion in the world today, very different from the 1930s, favorite source of the cherished legends of the Western left. What is also remarkable is that most of the anti-anti-war left shares a general condemnation of the revolutions of the past, because they led to Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot etc. But now that the revolutionaries are (Western backed) Islamists, we are supposed to believe that everything will turn out fine. What about ?drawing the lesson from the past? that violent revolutions are not necessarily the best or the only way to achieve social change? An alternative policy would take a 180? turn away from the one currently advocated by the anti-anti-war left. Instead of calling for more and more interventions, we should demand of our governments the strict respect for international law, non-interference in the internal affairs of other States and cooperation instead of confrontation. Non-interference means not only military non-intervention. It applies also to diplomatic and economic actions: no unilateral sanctions, no threats during negotiations, and equal treatment of all States. Instead of constantly ?denouncing? the leaders of countries such as Russia, China, Iran, Cuba for violating human rights, something the anti-anti-war left loves to do, we should listen to what they have to say, dialogue with them, and help our fellow citizens understand the different ways of thinking in the world, including the criticisms that other countries can make of our way of doing things. Cultivating such mutual understanding could in the long run be the best way to improve ?human rights? everywhere. This would not bring instant solutions to human rights abuses or political conflicts in countries such as Libya or Syria. But what does? The policy of interference increases tensions and militarization in the world. The countries that feel targeted by that policy, and they are numerous, defend themselves however they can. The demonization campaigns prevent peaceful relations between peoples, cultural exchanges between citizens and, indirectly, the flourishing of the very liberal ideas that the advocates of interference claim to be promoting. Once the anti-anti-war left abandoned any alternative program, it in fact gave up the possibility of having the slightest influence over world affairs. It does not in reality ?help the victims? as it claims. Except for destroying all resistance here to imperialism and war, it does nothing. The only ones who are really doing anything are in fact the succeeding U.S. administrations. Counting on them to care for the well-being of the world?s peoples is an attitude of total hopelessness. This hopelessness is an aspect of the way most of the Left reacted to the ?fall of communism?, by embracing the policies that were the exact opposite of those of the communists, particularly in international affairs, where opposition to imperialism and the defense of national sovereignty have increasingly been demonized as ?leftovers from Stalinism?. Interventionism and European construction are both right-wing policies. One of them is linked to the American drive for world hegemony. The other is the framework supporting neoliberal economic policies and destruction of social protection. Paradoxically, both have been largely justified by ?left-wing? ideas : human rights, internationalism, anti-racism and anti-nationalism. In both cases, a left that lost its way after the fall of the Soviet bloc has grasped at salvation by clinging to a ?generous, humanitarian? discourse, which totally lacks any realistic analysis of the relationship of forces in the world. With such a left, the right hardly needs any ideology of its own; it can make do with human rights. Nevertheless, both those policies, interventionism and European construction, are today in a dead end. U.S. imperialism is faced with huge difficulties, both economic and diplomatic. Its intervention policy has managed to unite much of the world against the United States. Scarcely anyone believes any more in ?another? Europe, a social Europe, and the real existing European Union (the only one possible) does not arouse much enthusiasm among working people. Of course, those failures currently benefit solely the right and the far right, only because most of the left has stopped defending peace, international law and national sovereignty, as the precondition of democracy. JEAN BRICMONT teaches physics at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He is author of Humanitarian Imperialism . He can be reached at Jean.Bricmont at uclouvain.be . -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Oct 5 14:39:34 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2020 07:39:34 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Recent posting by Jean Bricmont Message-ID: Jean Bricmont ?September 29 at 12:51 AM 21 reasons why supporting the U.S. establishment is worse than voting for a third party; Contrary to the guidelines that the establishment spinmeisters regurgitate to submit the left, here are 21 things that are actually much crazier, selfish, stupid and privileged than voting for another party: 1. Support a two-headed and one-party system in the world?s most powerful government, which has been the scene of endless wars and ecocides, and which led humanity to extinction ... 2. Continue to support a political system that is fully owned and run by the rich, leaving zero effective influence on American politics in the hands of ordinary Americans and immense influence in the hands of the very rich. 3. Continue to support a system that constantly deceives the American people to consents to oppressive neoliberal exploitation in their country and blood neoconservative bellicism abroad, two practices that always hurt the poorest groups and the most disadvantaged. 4. Continue supporting a two-headed single party system, where one head always pushes as far as possible to the right when it is in power and the other head never turns things back to the left, even from an iota when she is. 5. Continue supporting a political establishment that rehabilitates war criminals like George W Bush, Bill Kristol, David Frum and John Bolton while demonizing those who refused to vote for a bellicist. 6. Supporting a political party that has continued to attack Donald Trump from the right in terms of foreign policy, pushing him to escalate the cold war tensions with Russia and hysterically screaming if he makes any move de-escalate wherever it is. 7. Support a political party that seeks to cooperate all leftist populism and transform it into support for an establishment that encourages war and oligarchy while denying Americans the same social safety nets as everyone enjoys in all the other great countries of the world. 8. Supporting a party that claims to support press freedom while welcoming Trump?s extradition of Julian Assange, a measure that, if successful, will cripple press freedom worldwide and make it impossible to ask Accounts to the world's most powerful government. 9. Supporting a political party that has passed Trump?s mandate to galvanize his base around the CIA, psychopathic, and FBI, which oppresses the minority and hits the left, while doing everything possible to eradicate any leftist mind in his ranks. 10. Continue to support a media structure that strives everyday to deceive Americans to support their own impoverishment as weapons of war are spread all over the world at great expense. 11. Support a political establishment that promises slow and progressive change, but actually doesn?t bring any change, as our species slides off the extinction cliff, first removing the poorest and most marginalized. 12. Claiming that foreign policy simply doesn?t exist, or if it exists, claim that Joe Biden isn't a long-standing bellicist who spent his entire campaign attacking Trump because he wasn't sufficiently bellicist in the most areas of international conflict. 13. Ignore the fact that both sides are working to support the threatening cold war escalation against Russia and China, a campaign on several fronts whose complexity increases the likelihood of something going wrong cataclysmically even more than the last cold war. 14. Claiming that a party that has done nothing for U.S.?s poor communities is not directly responsible for the poverty, police brutality, massive incarceration, exploitation and oppression these communities face today 15. Pretending that things have become again like before Trump?s presidency would not only be a return to the conditions that created Trump's presidency. 16. Claim that Obama, who destroyed Libya, devastated Syria, facilitated Yemen?s rape, intervened in Ukraine, maintained and expanded all Bush's most depraved policies and did nothing for the people who did it elected, was a good president. 17. Continue to support a political system where everything only gets worse, whatever the oligarchic puppet Americans elect. 18. Put your head in the sand and pretend everything will be fine once a Democrat is in charge, once again. 19. Supporting a joke party with fake primaries who are always rigged to ensure the victory of the safest oligarchic puppet instead of pushing for something that looks like a true democracy. 20. Promote the lie that if you continue to do something that has never, never worked, this time it could produce different results. 21. Bringing people back to sleep when the only thing that can help ordinary people is that they start waking up and using the force of their number to force a radical revolutionary change. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Oct 5 16:58:27 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 5 Oct 2020 09:58:27 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: How to help endangered animals today References: Message-ID: > > > > > > > > Biodiversity is invaluable, but an Endangered Species Act proposal attempts to weigh the value of vulnerable animal species against potential economic gain. > > > To recover from falling population numbers, endangered species need access to appropriate habitats. But the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) just proposed an update to the ESA that will make it more difficult to designate land as critical to a species' recovery.1 > > > This update could lead to the destruction of endangered animal's habitats for financial incentives. > > > Act today: Submit a public comment to defend animal habitats before the Oct. 8 deadline. > > > > > > Federal land, such as national parks, wildlife refuges and forests, are crucial to recovery for species like the bald eagle, an iconic American animal that nearly went extinct before it was protected by the ESA.2 > > > The proposed update to the ESA makes it more difficult for endangered species to access critical habitats on federal land. The update states that the USFWS can exclude federal lands from habitat designation if it costs the federal government too much money or contends with community projects.3 > > > This proposal forces the USFWS to assess wildlife against monetary incentives, but the loss of biodiversity will cost all of us. > > > You have until Oct. 8 to save endangered animals from this exploitative proposal to update the ESA. > > The ESA was a bipartisan success when it first passed in 1973, and surveys suggest the act still has widespread support.4 However, recent proposals to update the ESA weaken the act's ability to protect and preserve wildlife. > > > This ESA proposal would be a big loss for our wildlife -- but it's not too late to voice your concerns. The USFWS is legally obligated to read and review public comments, weighing your voice in their decision. > > > Submit a public comment before it's too late. > > Thank you, > > > The Environmental Action team > > 1. Andrea Wortzel, Angela Levin, Viktoriia De Las Casas and Morgan Gerard, "FWS Issues Additional Habitat Proposal ," EnvironmentalLawandPolicy.com, September 8, 2020. > 2. Jasmine Aguilera, "The Trump Administration's Changes to the Endangered Species Act Risks Pushing More Species to Extinction ," TIME, August 14, 2019. > 3. "Endangered and Threatened Wildlife and Plants; Regulations for Designating Critical Habitat ," Federal Register, September 9, 2020. > 4. Jeremy T. Bruskotter, John A. Vucetich, Ramiro Berardo, "Support for the Endangered Species Act remains high as Trump Administration and Congress try to gut it ," PBS, July 21, 2018. > > > > You can support our work today by making a secure online contribution . > > > > > > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Tue Oct 6 18:38:26 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2020 11:38:26 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Animals/humans..... References: Message-ID: > Having just been disturbed by a photo of a murdered deer on FB, my thoughts on all culling/killing unnecessarily: > > "Culling," a nice word used to describe killing. Killing animals for sport. At one time "man" was required to kill animals to survive as were our ancestors. Now we raise them on factory farms for slaughter, hardly an improvement for the animals or planet. > Hunters killing for sport claiming to be culling due to over population is repugnant, as there is nothing sporting about tracking down and shooting a wild animal totally unsuspecting, unarmed, helpless, etc. If they are a endangered species its especially repugnant. > Does anyone really think the shooting of AfroAmericans by police with impunity is little more than a form of culling? Culling/killing those our ruling elites fear may form a substantial opposition to their crimes, is culling a means of eliminating those we view as dispensable given we have no jobs for them? > If you think, because you happen to be white you are exempt, surely you now see you?re not. If you?re poor, or working class, have debt, you?re vulnerable. Just as the assumption the Covid is only killing the the elderly, no one is safe. There is the insidious targeting of the disabled, young, and vulnerable, always taking place. > There are many means of disposing of those for whom we no longer have a use, lack of healthcare, affordable housing, high cost of education, lack of jobs, low wages. Laws against panhandling, feeding the poor, living in cars, are increasing across the US. > > We?ve been culling people in the Middle east, Asia and Africa, for their resources with our bombs, for decades if not centuries, making us immune to the murder of millions of Muslims killed just since 9/11. African migrants during that same time frame, all labeled by nationality, such as Iraqi?s, Libyans, Syrians, Yemeni?s etc., viewed as lesser importance than Americans. > > As it begins, so too will it end. K.Aram > > > > > >> On Oct 6, 2020, at 10:49, Niloofar Shambayati > wrote: >> >> Not having been able to do anything physical, I've been bombarding FOG with articles and video clips will try to restrain myself. The forecast for Saturday is good, so I'd hopefully be able to be at the demonstration with a sign. I don't have a listserv of potentially interested individuals for the purpose of publicizing our events -they're either oblivious to what directly affects them or they have "worthier" causes to focus on than protecting the wildlife :(. >> >> Viktoria, let's keep it in the back of our minds to discuss what kind of material to include in a "News" section for our website to keep the visitors engaged. >> >> >> Niloofar >> >> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 12:09 PM Viktoria Ford > wrote: >> What an amazing document! This is worth saving. Let's hope we get some action on this issue here soon in the US. >> >> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 11:17 AM cindi adkins > wrote: >> Thanks for sharing, Niloofar. >> Yes, I'm grateful there is an acknowledgement for animals. However, I don't know where Pakistan still stands on child marriage and valuing women. >> >> Cindi >> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 10:29 PM Niloofar Shambayati > wrote: >> Yes, such a recognition is truly welcomed; but, unfortunately, the distance between ruling and practice is long. >> >> >> Niloofar >> >> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020, 9:58 PM Philip Douglas > wrote: >> At least there's a progressive high court somewhere in the world... >> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 8:48 PM Niloofar Shambayati > wrote: >> Just in case you haven't read ALDF's article about Pakistan High Court's decision on animal legal rights >> >> >> Niloofar > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Tue Oct 6 18:38:26 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Tue, 6 Oct 2020 11:38:26 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: Animals/humans..... References: Message-ID: > Having just been disturbed by a photo of a murdered deer on FB, my thoughts on all culling/killing unnecessarily: > > "Culling," a nice word used to describe killing. Killing animals for sport. At one time "man" was required to kill animals to survive as were our ancestors. Now we raise them on factory farms for slaughter, hardly an improvement for the animals or planet. > Hunters killing for sport claiming to be culling due to over population is repugnant, as there is nothing sporting about tracking down and shooting a wild animal totally unsuspecting, unarmed, helpless, etc. If they are a endangered species its especially repugnant. > Does anyone really think the shooting of AfroAmericans by police with impunity is little more than a form of culling? Culling/killing those our ruling elites fear may form a substantial opposition to their crimes, is culling a means of eliminating those we view as dispensable given we have no jobs for them? > If you think, because you happen to be white you are exempt, surely you now see you?re not. If you?re poor, or working class, have debt, you?re vulnerable. Just as the assumption the Covid is only killing the the elderly, no one is safe. There is the insidious targeting of the disabled, young, and vulnerable, always taking place. > There are many means of disposing of those for whom we no longer have a use, lack of healthcare, affordable housing, high cost of education, lack of jobs, low wages. Laws against panhandling, feeding the poor, living in cars, are increasing across the US. > > We?ve been culling people in the Middle east, Asia and Africa, for their resources with our bombs, for decades if not centuries, making us immune to the murder of millions of Muslims killed just since 9/11. African migrants during that same time frame, all labeled by nationality, such as Iraqi?s, Libyans, Syrians, Yemeni?s etc., viewed as lesser importance than Americans. > > As it begins, so too will it end. K.Aram > > > > > >> On Oct 6, 2020, at 10:49, Niloofar Shambayati > wrote: >> >> Not having been able to do anything physical, I've been bombarding FOG with articles and video clips will try to restrain myself. The forecast for Saturday is good, so I'd hopefully be able to be at the demonstration with a sign. I don't have a listserv of potentially interested individuals for the purpose of publicizing our events -they're either oblivious to what directly affects them or they have "worthier" causes to focus on than protecting the wildlife :(. >> >> Viktoria, let's keep it in the back of our minds to discuss what kind of material to include in a "News" section for our website to keep the visitors engaged. >> >> >> Niloofar >> >> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 12:09 PM Viktoria Ford > wrote: >> What an amazing document! This is worth saving. Let's hope we get some action on this issue here soon in the US. >> >> On Tue, Oct 6, 2020 at 11:17 AM cindi adkins > wrote: >> Thanks for sharing, Niloofar. >> Yes, I'm grateful there is an acknowledgement for animals. However, I don't know where Pakistan still stands on child marriage and valuing women. >> >> Cindi >> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 10:29 PM Niloofar Shambayati > wrote: >> Yes, such a recognition is truly welcomed; but, unfortunately, the distance between ruling and practice is long. >> >> >> Niloofar >> >> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020, 9:58 PM Philip Douglas > wrote: >> At least there's a progressive high court somewhere in the world... >> >> On Mon, Oct 5, 2020 at 8:48 PM Niloofar Shambayati > wrote: >> Just in case you haven't read ALDF's article about Pakistan High Court's decision on animal legal rights >> >> >> Niloofar > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susanroseparenti at gmail.com Wed Oct 7 15:51:26 2020 From: susanroseparenti at gmail.com (Susan Parenti) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2020 10:51:26 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Friends of Geese: Rally this Sat, 2pm, at NEW BILLBOARD--502 East University Message-ID: [image: images-1.jpg] Canada goose trying to cross Prospect Ave, Oct. 5 2020 Hi friends of geese? \ Join our protest against brutal treatment of wild-life, this Saturday, Oct. 10. The protest will be at 502 East University? at the corner of University and 5th Street in Champaign, at the site of our new FOG billboard! The billboard will say: Urbana Park District?STOP KILLING OUR GEESE The billboard was ?bought? for us for one month, by our sister-organization, In Defense of Animals USA. Thank you IDA! The protest is part of our Launch of FOG 2020 (friends of geese). Media will be there. Please attend. Bring a friend! And spread the word! *Values and Goals of Friends of Geese: * - We promote awareness to build a more just, sustainable, and compassionate society that supports and protects habitable environments for plants, animals, and humans. - We insist that the interactions of humans and wildlife, when deemed to be in conflict, be handled in a non-lethal manner, and be designed to prevent cruelty to animals. - We provide educational information and promote a greater understanding of Grand Canada Geese to the community, to create a balanced ecological relationship between wildlife and humans in Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding areas. -- *Susan Parenti* *Educational Coordinator * *The School for Designing a Society *www.designingasociety.net *Like us on Facebook !* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: images-1.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 9982 bytes Desc: not available URL: From kmedina67 at gmail.com Fri Oct 9 15:43:53 2020 From: kmedina67 at gmail.com (Karen Medina) Date: Fri, 9 Oct 2020 10:43:53 -0500 Subject: [Peace] "Abolition and Grassroots Organizing" with Carol Ammons, James Kilgore, and Malkia Devich-Cyril and Shaya Robinson / Tonight, Friday, 5-7pm Anniversary Panel Message-ID: [spreading the information to interested parties] Panel Discussion: "Abolition and Grassroots Organizing" with Carol Ammons, James Kilgore, and Malkia Devich-Cyril and Shaya Robinson. - You are invited to join the live but virtual audience this Friday, October 9, 2020 from 5pm-7pm during the pre-recording of a virtual panel discussion. Please email miriam at ucimc.org receive the zoom link. This is part of IMC's 20th anniversary. - The program will "air" on Wednesday, October 28 as an episode of the IMC's weekly "Sounds Like Community" virtual event). - For the pre-recording, we are inviting a small group of people in our community to be in the zoom audience -- adding questions or comments. - Will you join us today? Please email miriam at ucimc.org receive the zoom link. Thanks for considering this! -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From susanroseparenti at gmail.com Sat Oct 10 15:20:44 2020 From: susanroseparenti at gmail.com (Susan Parenti) Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 10:20:44 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Friends of Geese--rally today postponed. Our billboard taken over by political group Message-ID: Hi friends--No rally today. It's been postponed to mid- November. We found out late yesterday that the billboard which *had been reserved * for Friends of Geese for the time-period of Oct. 10--Nov. 10 *was suddenly 'bought out' by a political group*, at a price higher than what we were going to pay. . The billboard owner said he had a clause in our contract saying he could sell to the highest bidder, independent of previous agreements. This all happened late yesterday, and we just found out. We don't yet. know what political group took the billboard. Sounds odd. We'll be looking into this. ---Catch us this wednesday, Oct. 14, at Sounds Like Community--Friends of Geese will be speaking. at 7pm CDT. Check out the FB event: https://www.facebook.com/events/345153456730940 -- *Susan Parenti* *Educational Coordinator * *The School for Designing a Society *www.designingasociety.net *Like us on Facebook !* -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Oct 10 21:07:03 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 14:07:03 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?MONDAY=2C_OCTOBER_12=2C_2020_AT_3_PM_PDT_?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=93_5_PM_PDT__CANCEL_THE_RENTS_=26_MEET_GLORIA_LA_RIVA?= Message-ID: MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2020 AT 3 PM PDT ? 5 PM PDT CANCEL THE RENTS & MEET GLORIA LA RIVA Champaign County Courthouse With more than 50 million people having lost their jobs a wave of evictions and foreclosures is beginning to sweep the country.The number of homeless is growing. Instead of providing real relief the government is unleashing police departments to evict people from their homes, harass the homeless and continue to carry out routine acts of violence and brutality in Black, Latino and Indigenous communities. Take this opportunity also to listen to and meet Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation who is an accepted candidate in over half the country. The La Riva 2020 presidential campaign stands in solidarity with the mass movement of millions in the streets demanding justice and an end to systemic oppression and racism. La Riva and supporters have been marching in the streets from Minneapolis to New York City to Los Angeles, demanding an end to police terror and racism. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Oct 10 21:07:03 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 14:07:03 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?MONDAY=2C_OCTOBER_12=2C_2020_AT_3_PM_PDT_?= =?utf-8?q?=E2=80=93_5_PM_PDT__CANCEL_THE_RENTS_=26_MEET_GLORIA_LA_RIVA?= Message-ID: MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2020 AT 3 PM PDT ? 5 PM PDT CANCEL THE RENTS & MEET GLORIA LA RIVA Champaign County Courthouse With more than 50 million people having lost their jobs a wave of evictions and foreclosures is beginning to sweep the country.The number of homeless is growing. Instead of providing real relief the government is unleashing police departments to evict people from their homes, harass the homeless and continue to carry out routine acts of violence and brutality in Black, Latino and Indigenous communities. Take this opportunity also to listen to and meet Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation who is an accepted candidate in over half the country. The La Riva 2020 presidential campaign stands in solidarity with the mass movement of millions in the streets demanding justice and an end to systemic oppression and racism. La Riva and supporters have been marching in the streets from Minneapolis to New York City to Los Angeles, demanding an end to police terror and racism. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 11 00:01:28 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 17:01:28 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: CORRECTION: CANCEL THE RENTS EVENT STARTS AT 5:00pm References: Message-ID: I was informed the FB page announcement of a start time earlier than 5:00 is incorrect. It will begin at 5:00. > > > MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2020 AT 5 PM PDT > > CANCEL THE RENTS & MEET GLORIA LA RIVA > > Champaign County Courthouse > With more than 50 million people having lost their jobs a wave of evictions and foreclosures is beginning to sweep the country.The number of homeless is growing. Instead of providing real relief the government is unleashing police departments to evict people from their homes, harass the homeless and continue to carry out routine acts of violence and brutality in Black, Latino and Indigenous communities. > Take this opportunity also to listen to and meet Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation who is an accepted candidate in over half the country. The La Riva 2020 presidential campaign stands in solidarity with the mass movement of millions in the streets demanding justice and an end to systemic oppression and racism. La Riva and supporters have been marching in the streets from Minneapolis to New York City to Los Angeles, demanding an end to police terror and racism. > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 11 00:01:28 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sat, 10 Oct 2020 17:01:28 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: CORRECTION: CANCEL THE RENTS EVENT STARTS AT 5:00pm References: Message-ID: I was informed the FB page announcement of a start time earlier than 5:00 is incorrect. It will begin at 5:00. > > > MONDAY, OCTOBER 12, 2020 AT 5 PM PDT > > CANCEL THE RENTS & MEET GLORIA LA RIVA > > Champaign County Courthouse > With more than 50 million people having lost their jobs a wave of evictions and foreclosures is beginning to sweep the country.The number of homeless is growing. Instead of providing real relief the government is unleashing police departments to evict people from their homes, harass the homeless and continue to carry out routine acts of violence and brutality in Black, Latino and Indigenous communities. > Take this opportunity also to listen to and meet Gloria La Riva, the presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation who is an accepted candidate in over half the country. The La Riva 2020 presidential campaign stands in solidarity with the mass movement of millions in the streets demanding justice and an end to systemic oppression and racism. La Riva and supporters have been marching in the streets from Minneapolis to New York City to Los Angeles, demanding an end to police terror and racism. > > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 11 12:17:38 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 05:17:38 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Cancel the rents and mortgages, meet Gloria La Riva Monday Oct. 12th at 5:00pm Message-ID: The Democrat Party introduced a bill that passed the House, for a 12 month moratorium on rents, doubtful it will pass the Senate and it won't doesn't solve the problem anyway, as it only deepens the debt. which will will still be due. The only answer is to cancel the rents and mortgages, to bail out the people not the banks. Gloria La Riva, presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation will explain their proposed policy Monday, Oct. 12th in front of the Champaign County Courthouse at 5:00pm in Urbana Illinois. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 11 12:17:38 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 11 Oct 2020 05:17:38 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Cancel the rents and mortgages, meet Gloria La Riva Monday Oct. 12th at 5:00pm Message-ID: The Democrat Party introduced a bill that passed the House, for a 12 month moratorium on rents, doubtful it will pass the Senate and it won't doesn't solve the problem anyway, as it only deepens the debt. which will will still be due. The only answer is to cancel the rents and mortgages, to bail out the people not the banks. Gloria La Riva, presidential candidate for the Party for Socialism and Liberation will explain their proposed policy Monday, Oct. 12th in front of the Champaign County Courthouse at 5:00pm in Urbana Illinois. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Oct 12 19:56:26 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2020 12:56:26 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Write to Julian Assange/his address is References: <5f8492e5ae4f3_173344ef58230af@asgworker-qmb3-17.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: > > > Home About Join Us Support Sign up > Today's virtual letter writing is postponed to a later date. In the meantime we want to highly recommend that everyone read John Pilger's recent article on Assange. You can also write to Assange at: > > ADDRESS: > Mr. Julian Assange > DOB: 3/07/1971 > Prisoner # A9379AY > HMP Belmarsh > Western Way > London SE28 0EB > UK > > > Follow the campaign on twitter > > Questions? Comments? Contact us. > You can also keep up with the PSL on Twitter or Facebook . > > This email was sent to karenaram at hotmail.com . To stop receiving emails, click here . > > Created with NationBuilder , the essential toolkit for leaders. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Oct 12 19:56:26 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 12 Oct 2020 12:56:26 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Write to Julian Assange/his address is References: <5f8492e5ae4f3_173344ef58230af@asgworker-qmb3-17.nbuild.prd.useast1.3dna.io.mail> Message-ID: > > > Home About Join Us Support Sign up > Today's virtual letter writing is postponed to a later date. In the meantime we want to highly recommend that everyone read John Pilger's recent article on Assange. You can also write to Assange at: > > ADDRESS: > Mr. Julian Assange > DOB: 3/07/1971 > Prisoner # A9379AY > HMP Belmarsh > Western Way > London SE28 0EB > UK > > > Follow the campaign on twitter > > Questions? Comments? Contact us. > You can also keep up with the PSL on Twitter or Facebook . > > This email was sent to karenaram at hotmail.com . To stop receiving emails, click here . > > Created with NationBuilder , the essential toolkit for leaders. > > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Oct 15 14:27:41 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2020 07:27:41 -0700 Subject: [Peace] What those of us supporting peace, vs. war have been waiting for: U.S. Fails To Find Allies For Waging War On China/ Moon Over Alabama Message-ID: October 14, 2020 U.S. Fails To Find Allies For Waging War On China The U.S. wants to counter China's growing economic and political standing in the world. The Obama administration had attempted a 'pivot to Asia' by building a low tariff economic zone via the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). It would have excluded China. The Trump administration rejected the TPP and withdrew from it. It launched an economic war against China by increasing tariffs on Chinese products, prohibiting high tech supplies to Chinese manufacturers, and by denying Chinese companies access to its market. It has also tried to build a military coalition that would help it to threaten China. It revived the 2007-2008 Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and rebranded it as the U.S.-Australia-India-Japan Consultations Quad. The aim was to turn it into an Asian NATO under U.S. command: The U.S. State Department?s No. 2 diplomat said Monday that Washington was aiming to ?formalize? growing strategic ties with India, Japan and Australia in a forum known as ?the Quad? ? a move experts say is implicitly designed to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region. ?It is a reality that the Indo-Pacific region is actually lacking in strong multilateral structures. They don?t have anything of the fortitude of NATO, or the European Union,? U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said in an online seminar on the sidelines of the annual U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum. ?There is certainly an invitation there at some point to formalize a structure like this,? he added. But it turns out that neither Australia nor Japan nor India have any interest in a hard stand towards China. All look to China as an important trade partner. They know that any conflict with it would cost them dearly. On October 6 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Tokyo for a meeting with the other foreign ministers of the Quad. He soon found that no one would join him in his militant talk: <>In a meeting with foreign ministers from Japan, India and Australia in Tokyo, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged on Tuesday that they strengthen their quartet of democracies to resist an increasingly assertive China. ... If, as it appeared, Pompeo was pushing other members of the Quad to take the U.S. side in a confrontation with China, he did not score any ringing public endorsements, and his remarks clashed with those of his host. Pompeo aimed straight at the Chinese Communist Party in remarks before the four nations' top diplomats sat down to talk. "As partners in this Quad, it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the CCP's exploitation, corruption and coercion," he said. But Japan's chief government spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, insisted at a press briefing Tuesday: "This Quad meeting is not being held with any particular country in mind." Australia and India were similarly reluctant to say anything that would potentially offend China. Pompeo's initiative has failed. The former Indian ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar explains why the Quad won't fly : China cannot be beaten since, unlike the USSR, it is part of the same global society as the US. Look at the sheer spread of the US-China battlefields ? global governance, geoeconomics, trade, investment, finance, currency usage, supply chain management, technology standards and systems, scientific collaboration and so on. It speaks of China?s vast global reach. This wasn?t the case with USSR. Above all, China has no messianic ideology to export and prefers to set a model by virtue of its performance. It is not in the business of instigating regime change in other countries, and actually gets along rather well with democracies. ... The US created the ASEAN but today no Asian security partner wants to choose between America and China. The ASEAN cannot be repurposed to form a coalition to counter China. Thus, no claimant against China in the South China Sea is prepared to join the US in its naval fracas with China. China has resources, including money, to offer its partners, whereas, the US budget is in chronic deficit and even routine government operations must now be funded with debt. It needs to find resources needed to keep its human and physical infrastructure at levels competitive with those of China and other great economic powers. Why on earth should India get entangled in this messy affair whose climax is a foregone conclusion? ... China has no need to fight wars when it is already winning. The U.S. also tried to incite its European NATO allies to take a stand against China : NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Saturday that China's increasing influence had created a "fundamental shift in the global balance of power" that should not be overlooked. In an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, that was released in advance, the Norwegian official said that Beijing had the second-largest defense budget in the world after the United States, and was investing heavily in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could reach Europe. "One thing is clear: China is coming ever closer to Europe's doorstep," he said. "NATO allies must face this challenge together." That initiative will sink in Europe just as fast as the Quad initiative has sunk in Asia and for the very same reasons. China is not an ideological or military danger to Europe. It is an economic behemoth and relation with it need to be carefully handled. They require respect and talks and not saber rattling. China has overtaken the U.S. as the EU's biggest trading partner: In the first seven months of 2020, China surpassed the United States to become the biggest trading partner of the European Union (EU), said Eurostat, the EU's statistics organisation. ... The EU's imports from China increased by 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the January-July period, noted Eurostat. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the largest economy in the EU, China, Germany's biggest trading partner since 2016, surpassed the United States for the first time in the second quarter of this year to become Germany's largest export market, and Germany's exports to China in July have rebounded almost to last year's level. It is time for the U.S. to look into a mirror and to awake to reality. It is highly indebted country with a way too expensive but ineffective military. Over the last decades its economic role in the world has continuously declined. The constant militant positions and 'do as we say' attitude has alienated its allies. Without allies the U.S. has no chance to defeat China in any potential conflict. What the U.S. still could do is to honestly compete with China. But that would require humility, a strong industrial policy and a well paid and competitive work force. Neither of that is in sight. Posted by b on October 14, 2020 at 17:07 UTC | Permalink -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Oct 15 14:27:41 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 15 Oct 2020 07:27:41 -0700 Subject: [Peace] What those of us supporting peace, vs. war have been waiting for: U.S. Fails To Find Allies For Waging War On China/ Moon Over Alabama Message-ID: October 14, 2020 U.S. Fails To Find Allies For Waging War On China The U.S. wants to counter China's growing economic and political standing in the world. The Obama administration had attempted a 'pivot to Asia' by building a low tariff economic zone via the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). It would have excluded China. The Trump administration rejected the TPP and withdrew from it. It launched an economic war against China by increasing tariffs on Chinese products, prohibiting high tech supplies to Chinese manufacturers, and by denying Chinese companies access to its market. It has also tried to build a military coalition that would help it to threaten China. It revived the 2007-2008 Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and rebranded it as the U.S.-Australia-India-Japan Consultations Quad. The aim was to turn it into an Asian NATO under U.S. command: The U.S. State Department?s No. 2 diplomat said Monday that Washington was aiming to ?formalize? growing strategic ties with India, Japan and Australia in a forum known as ?the Quad? ? a move experts say is implicitly designed to counter China in the Indo-Pacific region. ?It is a reality that the Indo-Pacific region is actually lacking in strong multilateral structures. They don?t have anything of the fortitude of NATO, or the European Union,? U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Stephen Biegun said in an online seminar on the sidelines of the annual U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum. ?There is certainly an invitation there at some point to formalize a structure like this,? he added. But it turns out that neither Australia nor Japan nor India have any interest in a hard stand towards China. All look to China as an important trade partner. They know that any conflict with it would cost them dearly. On October 6 Secretary of State Mike Pompeo flew to Tokyo for a meeting with the other foreign ministers of the Quad. He soon found that no one would join him in his militant talk: <>In a meeting with foreign ministers from Japan, India and Australia in Tokyo, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo urged on Tuesday that they strengthen their quartet of democracies to resist an increasingly assertive China. ... If, as it appeared, Pompeo was pushing other members of the Quad to take the U.S. side in a confrontation with China, he did not score any ringing public endorsements, and his remarks clashed with those of his host. Pompeo aimed straight at the Chinese Communist Party in remarks before the four nations' top diplomats sat down to talk. "As partners in this Quad, it is more critical now than ever that we collaborate to protect our people and partners from the CCP's exploitation, corruption and coercion," he said. But Japan's chief government spokesman, Katsunobu Kato, insisted at a press briefing Tuesday: "This Quad meeting is not being held with any particular country in mind." Australia and India were similarly reluctant to say anything that would potentially offend China. Pompeo's initiative has failed. The former Indian ambassador M. K. Bhadrakumar explains why the Quad won't fly : China cannot be beaten since, unlike the USSR, it is part of the same global society as the US. Look at the sheer spread of the US-China battlefields ? global governance, geoeconomics, trade, investment, finance, currency usage, supply chain management, technology standards and systems, scientific collaboration and so on. It speaks of China?s vast global reach. This wasn?t the case with USSR. Above all, China has no messianic ideology to export and prefers to set a model by virtue of its performance. It is not in the business of instigating regime change in other countries, and actually gets along rather well with democracies. ... The US created the ASEAN but today no Asian security partner wants to choose between America and China. The ASEAN cannot be repurposed to form a coalition to counter China. Thus, no claimant against China in the South China Sea is prepared to join the US in its naval fracas with China. China has resources, including money, to offer its partners, whereas, the US budget is in chronic deficit and even routine government operations must now be funded with debt. It needs to find resources needed to keep its human and physical infrastructure at levels competitive with those of China and other great economic powers. Why on earth should India get entangled in this messy affair whose climax is a foregone conclusion? ... China has no need to fight wars when it is already winning. The U.S. also tried to incite its European NATO allies to take a stand against China : NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned Saturday that China's increasing influence had created a "fundamental shift in the global balance of power" that should not be overlooked. In an interview with Germany's Welt am Sonntag newspaper, that was released in advance, the Norwegian official said that Beijing had the second-largest defense budget in the world after the United States, and was investing heavily in nuclear weapons and long-range missiles that could reach Europe. "One thing is clear: China is coming ever closer to Europe's doorstep," he said. "NATO allies must face this challenge together." That initiative will sink in Europe just as fast as the Quad initiative has sunk in Asia and for the very same reasons. China is not an ideological or military danger to Europe. It is an economic behemoth and relation with it need to be carefully handled. They require respect and talks and not saber rattling. China has overtaken the U.S. as the EU's biggest trading partner: In the first seven months of 2020, China surpassed the United States to become the biggest trading partner of the European Union (EU), said Eurostat, the EU's statistics organisation. ... The EU's imports from China increased by 4.9 per cent year-on-year in the January-July period, noted Eurostat. According to the Federal Statistical Office of Germany, the largest economy in the EU, China, Germany's biggest trading partner since 2016, surpassed the United States for the first time in the second quarter of this year to become Germany's largest export market, and Germany's exports to China in July have rebounded almost to last year's level. It is time for the U.S. to look into a mirror and to awake to reality. It is highly indebted country with a way too expensive but ineffective military. Over the last decades its economic role in the world has continuously declined. The constant militant positions and 'do as we say' attitude has alienated its allies. Without allies the U.S. has no chance to defeat China in any potential conflict. What the U.S. still could do is to honestly compete with China. But that would require humility, a strong industrial policy and a well paid and competitive work force. Neither of that is in sight. Posted by b on October 14, 2020 at 17:07 UTC | Permalink -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Oct 16 16:30:34 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2020 09:30:34 -0700 Subject: [Peace] "Cancel Rents," PSL Rally with Gloria La Riva and others. Message-ID: ?https://youtu.be/0zsUjqNPjE8 -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Oct 17 00:30:46 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2020 17:30:46 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Senate Democrats want $350 billion to prepare for war with China Message-ID: Analysis Features Senate Democrats want $350 billion to prepare for war with China Walter Smolarek September 17, 2020 3572 2 minutes read Download PDF flyer Democrats in the Senate announced September 17 a massive spending bill aimed at stepping up U.S. hostility towards China to the tune of $350 billion. Introduced by leading imperialist war hawks Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez, the legislation is intended to shore up U.S. dominance in strategic sectors of the world economy through huge government subsidies, as well as bolstering ongoing efforts to politically destabilize China. The centerpiece of the Democrats? proposal is a $300 billion fund to subsidize science and technology development. This in all likelihood will mean a massive payday for some of the biggest tech firms in the country. An additional $16 billion is earmarked just for the semiconductor industry, a field where Chinese firms play a particularly prominent role. Strengthening these industries is one of the core goals of the Pentagon?s ?Great Power Competition? doctrine, which identifies all-out confrontation with China (and Russia) as the overarching goal guiding U.S. military and foreign policy in the 21st century. U.S. aggression against China is constrained by the fact that U.S. corporations? supply chains tend to be heavily dependent on China?s manufacturing sector. These subsidies aim to break down this key roadblock on the path to war. While semiconductors and other high-tech goods are of course valuable to the civilian economy, they are also crucial to the U.S. military?s efforts to maintain a technological edge over the Chinese People?s Liberation Army. Schumer and Menendez?s bill includes a host of other measures. The Senators want to single out Chinese government officials involved in policy towards the country?s northwestern Xinjiang region, offer assistance to the separatist movement in Hong Kong, and authorize an additional $125 million of military spending to assist U.S. junior partners that go along with the anti-China campaign. Democrats and Republics in lockstep on anti-China aggression In his announcement of the bill, Chuck Schumer?s rhetoric was indistinguishable from Mike Pompeo or Donald Trump, boasting that his proposal ?Counteracts the Chinese Communist Party?s predatory trade practices and aggressive military behavior.? In July, Senate Republicans introduced their own anti-China bill, and reacted positively to the Democrats? proposal. Explaining that he wished to incorporate the Democrats? bill into his own, Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch proclaimed, ?This is an American issue. This is not a partisan issue?. But workers in the United States have nothing to gain from conflict in China. ?This is all about destroying China?s peaceful economic rise because the United States wants to keep every nation on earth under its thumb.? argues Mike Wong, Vice President of the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace, ?It will seek to break every nation that wants to be independent of the U.S., especially a nation like China with a large economy.? Noting that ?anti-China attitudes are truly bipartisan?, Ken Hammond, professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University, said that while the Democrats and Republicans, ?may have differences of opinion as to how best to enrich themselves and retain their power and privileges, they broadly agree that China?s emergence as a significant player in world affairs, and the development of China as a moderately prosperous society, constitutes an existential threat to American dominance? At a time when tens of millions of workers are unemployed, facing eviction and even going without food, the Democratic Party wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in handouts to the high tech industry in pursuit of their militarist agenda. On this issue of existential importance to the future of the entire world, both ruling class parties in the United States are unified in their march towards potentially catastrophic conflict. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Oct 17 00:30:46 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2020 17:30:46 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Senate Democrats want $350 billion to prepare for war with China Message-ID: Analysis Features Senate Democrats want $350 billion to prepare for war with China Walter Smolarek September 17, 2020 3572 2 minutes read Download PDF flyer Democrats in the Senate announced September 17 a massive spending bill aimed at stepping up U.S. hostility towards China to the tune of $350 billion. Introduced by leading imperialist war hawks Chuck Schumer and Bob Menendez, the legislation is intended to shore up U.S. dominance in strategic sectors of the world economy through huge government subsidies, as well as bolstering ongoing efforts to politically destabilize China. The centerpiece of the Democrats? proposal is a $300 billion fund to subsidize science and technology development. This in all likelihood will mean a massive payday for some of the biggest tech firms in the country. An additional $16 billion is earmarked just for the semiconductor industry, a field where Chinese firms play a particularly prominent role. Strengthening these industries is one of the core goals of the Pentagon?s ?Great Power Competition? doctrine, which identifies all-out confrontation with China (and Russia) as the overarching goal guiding U.S. military and foreign policy in the 21st century. U.S. aggression against China is constrained by the fact that U.S. corporations? supply chains tend to be heavily dependent on China?s manufacturing sector. These subsidies aim to break down this key roadblock on the path to war. While semiconductors and other high-tech goods are of course valuable to the civilian economy, they are also crucial to the U.S. military?s efforts to maintain a technological edge over the Chinese People?s Liberation Army. Schumer and Menendez?s bill includes a host of other measures. The Senators want to single out Chinese government officials involved in policy towards the country?s northwestern Xinjiang region, offer assistance to the separatist movement in Hong Kong, and authorize an additional $125 million of military spending to assist U.S. junior partners that go along with the anti-China campaign. Democrats and Republics in lockstep on anti-China aggression In his announcement of the bill, Chuck Schumer?s rhetoric was indistinguishable from Mike Pompeo or Donald Trump, boasting that his proposal ?Counteracts the Chinese Communist Party?s predatory trade practices and aggressive military behavior.? In July, Senate Republicans introduced their own anti-China bill, and reacted positively to the Democrats? proposal. Explaining that he wished to incorporate the Democrats? bill into his own, Republican Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jim Risch proclaimed, ?This is an American issue. This is not a partisan issue?. But workers in the United States have nothing to gain from conflict in China. ?This is all about destroying China?s peaceful economic rise because the United States wants to keep every nation on earth under its thumb.? argues Mike Wong, Vice President of the San Francisco chapter of Veterans for Peace, ?It will seek to break every nation that wants to be independent of the U.S., especially a nation like China with a large economy.? Noting that ?anti-China attitudes are truly bipartisan?, Ken Hammond, professor of East Asian and Global History at New Mexico State University, said that while the Democrats and Republicans, ?may have differences of opinion as to how best to enrich themselves and retain their power and privileges, they broadly agree that China?s emergence as a significant player in world affairs, and the development of China as a moderately prosperous society, constitutes an existential threat to American dominance? At a time when tens of millions of workers are unemployed, facing eviction and even going without food, the Democratic Party wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in handouts to the high tech industry in pursuit of their militarist agenda. On this issue of existential importance to the future of the entire world, both ruling class parties in the United States are unified in their march towards potentially catastrophic conflict. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 18 14:17:41 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 07:17:41 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China Message-ID: Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 18 14:17:41 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 07:17:41 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China Message-ID: Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Sun Oct 18 19:02:37 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 19:02:37 +0000 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Sun Oct 18 19:02:37 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 19:02:37 +0000 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 18 20:57:59 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 13:57:59 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> References: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Mort In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given Russiagate, and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A reversal of that plan would be too obvious. I don?t see Russia going along with it, unless regime change with a more Yeltsin like leader, comes into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, if they force China, by blocking imports of oil or minerals necessary for production, to retaliate, which they could do by controlling the shipping lanes in Asia, anything is possible. JMHO > On Oct 18, 2020, at 12:02, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. > >> On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: >> >> >> Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of >> the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. >> >> >> Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." >> >> >> John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. >> >> >> Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. >> >> >> Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. >> >> >> Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning >> >> >> >> >> https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sun Oct 18 20:57:59 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Sun, 18 Oct 2020 13:57:59 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> References: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Mort In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given Russiagate, and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A reversal of that plan would be too obvious. I don?t see Russia going along with it, unless regime change with a more Yeltsin like leader, comes into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, if they force China, by blocking imports of oil or minerals necessary for production, to retaliate, which they could do by controlling the shipping lanes in Asia, anything is possible. JMHO > On Oct 18, 2020, at 12:02, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. > >> On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: >> >> >> Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of >> the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. >> >> >> Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." >> >> >> John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. >> >> >> Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. >> >> >> Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. >> >> >> Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning >> >> >> >> >> https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Mon Oct 19 12:26:26 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 08:26:26 -0400 Subject: [Peace] NYT infographic: Top 3 ways voters' ballots get rejected Message-ID: Infographic from NYT shows how voters' ballots get rejected, shows the rules by state at a glance, shows how voters' own signatures can get rejected. Top three justifications for rejecting voters' ballots in 2018: ballot late, signature "doesn't match," no signature, in that order: HOW COULD YOUR BALLOT BE REJECTED? LET US COUNT THE WAYS A primer from Opinion on all the ways the election could go wrong. https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/10/19/opinion/election-vote-by-mail-rejections.html -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Mon Oct 19 21:58:07 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 21:58:07 +0000 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: References: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <3E7B0B7D-C7BE-4857-8D3F-0F9587D975D6@illinois.edu> It would be interesting to know what in fact the U.S. military is planning with respect to China. It is hard for me to believe that they want a war, for they are quite vunerable to China?s military prowess, which is leaping forward. Would Russia help China? Could the u.S. military leaders think they can provoke something they can cntrol such as inhibiting China?s access to the Pacific sea lanes, on which it depends, for instance for oi and trad with the West. What would China do if such were attempted? Then, there is the issue of Taipei. Here, the Chinese are on weaker ground, as Taipei becomes more aligned militarily with the U.S. Military action against Taipei seems unlikely (to me). The whole business is madness, and there is little in the cards that whomever wins our coming election will improve relations and back off its provocations: Can an empire draw down on its aspirations? On Oct 18, 2020, at 3:57 PM, Karen Aram > wrote: Mort In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given Russiagate, and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A reversal of that plan would be too obvious. I don?t see Russia going along with it, unless regime change with a more Yeltsin like leader, comes into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, if they force China, by blocking imports of oil or minerals necessary for production, to retaliate, which they could do by controlling the shipping lanes in Asia, anything is possible. JMHO On Oct 18, 2020, at 12:02, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Mon Oct 19 21:58:07 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 21:58:07 +0000 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: References: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> Message-ID: <3E7B0B7D-C7BE-4857-8D3F-0F9587D975D6@illinois.edu> It would be interesting to know what in fact the U.S. military is planning with respect to China. It is hard for me to believe that they want a war, for they are quite vunerable to China?s military prowess, which is leaping forward. Would Russia help China? Could the u.S. military leaders think they can provoke something they can cntrol such as inhibiting China?s access to the Pacific sea lanes, on which it depends, for instance for oi and trad with the West. What would China do if such were attempted? Then, there is the issue of Taipei. Here, the Chinese are on weaker ground, as Taipei becomes more aligned militarily with the U.S. Military action against Taipei seems unlikely (to me). The whole business is madness, and there is little in the cards that whomever wins our coming election will improve relations and back off its provocations: Can an empire draw down on its aspirations? On Oct 18, 2020, at 3:57 PM, Karen Aram > wrote: Mort In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given Russiagate, and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A reversal of that plan would be too obvious. I don?t see Russia going along with it, unless regime change with a more Yeltsin like leader, comes into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, if they force China, by blocking imports of oil or minerals necessary for production, to retaliate, which they could do by controlling the shipping lanes in Asia, anything is possible. JMHO On Oct 18, 2020, at 12:02, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU _______________________________________________ Peace mailing list Peace at lists.chambana.net https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Tue Oct 20 00:06:13 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:06:13 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: <3E7B0B7D-C7BE-4857-8D3F-0F9587D975D6@illinois.edu> References: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> <3E7B0B7D-C7BE-4857-8D3F-0F9587D975D6@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Mort In respect to your first paragraph, I will just repeat my statement previously with new or rewritten additions in red. In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given ?russiagate," and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military power, and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A takeover of China would be merely a reversal of that plan, and too obvious. Wm. Blum in 2016 noted, Iran is a stepping stone to Russia. I believe the US is attempting regime change in Russia, in hopes of a more Yeltsin like leader, coming into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. In other words, yes, unless the US were to succeed in attaining regime change in Russia, they would help China, as they know they would be next, just as they went into Syria to help the Syrians, and Iran. Russia is also along with China helping the Venezuelans. As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, and take control of the Malacca Straits, through which all shipping and commerce must traverse through that part of the world, blocking imports of oil or minerals, which are necessary for production, China would retaliate, As to Taiwan, China has no intention of attacking them, there is a lot of business done between Taiwan and China, in spite of US provocations. It?s insulting that the US refuses to accept Taiwan as part of China. A tidbit from my past: When working in Shanghai, I was in a meeting with an official from the Chinese Energy Dept., I asked him why they had not provided a visa for a particular individual I had just hired for their project, and his response was, ?your government just delivered 4 F-16?s to Taiwan.? The fact that they were cutting their own throat hadn?t occurred to him, until this was pointed out, diplomatically, the visa then came through. This was in 2008, a form of retaliation I learned that had been going on for quite a few years. > On Oct 19, 2020, at 14:58, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > It would be interesting to know what in fact the U.S. military is planning with respect to China. It is hard for me to believe that they want a war, for they are quite vunerable to China?s military prowess, which is leaping forward. Would Russia help China? Could the u.S. military leaders think they can provoke something they can cntrol such as inhibiting China?s access to the Pacific sea lanes, on which it depends, for instance for oi and trad with the West. What would China do if such were attempted? > > Then, there is the issue of Taipei. Here, the Chinese are on weaker ground, as Taipei becomes more aligned militarily with the U.S. Military action against Taipei seems unlikely (to me). > > The whole business is madness, and there is little in the cards that whomever wins our coming election will improve relations and back off its provocations: Can an empire draw down on its aspirations? > >> On Oct 18, 2020, at 3:57 PM, Karen Aram > wrote: >> >> Mort >> >> In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. >> >> It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given Russiagate, and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A reversal of that plan would be too obvious. >> I don?t see Russia going along with it, unless regime change with a more Yeltsin like leader, comes into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. >> >> As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. >> >> The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, if they force China, by blocking imports of oil or minerals necessary for production, to retaliate, which they could do by controlling the shipping lanes in Asia, anything is possible. >> >> JMHO >> >> >> >> >>> On Oct 18, 2020, at 12:02, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: >>> >>> Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. >>> >>>> On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of >>>> the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. >>>> >>>> >>>> Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." >>>> >>>> >>>> John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. >>>> >>>> >>>> Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. >>>> >>>> >>>> Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. >>>> >>>> >>>> Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Peace mailing list >>>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >>> >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Tue Oct 20 00:06:13 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2020 17:06:13 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The Coming War with China In-Reply-To: <3E7B0B7D-C7BE-4857-8D3F-0F9587D975D6@illinois.edu> References: <8B9C514B-64CC-431C-B134-B6EA7BBD05F0@illinois.edu> <3E7B0B7D-C7BE-4857-8D3F-0F9587D975D6@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Mort In respect to your first paragraph, I will just repeat my statement previously with new or rewritten additions in red. In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given ?russiagate," and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military power, and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A takeover of China would be merely a reversal of that plan, and too obvious. Wm. Blum in 2016 noted, Iran is a stepping stone to Russia. I believe the US is attempting regime change in Russia, in hopes of a more Yeltsin like leader, coming into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. In other words, yes, unless the US were to succeed in attaining regime change in Russia, they would help China, as they know they would be next, just as they went into Syria to help the Syrians, and Iran. Russia is also along with China helping the Venezuelans. As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, and take control of the Malacca Straits, through which all shipping and commerce must traverse through that part of the world, blocking imports of oil or minerals, which are necessary for production, China would retaliate, As to Taiwan, China has no intention of attacking them, there is a lot of business done between Taiwan and China, in spite of US provocations. It?s insulting that the US refuses to accept Taiwan as part of China. A tidbit from my past: When working in Shanghai, I was in a meeting with an official from the Chinese Energy Dept., I asked him why they had not provided a visa for a particular individual I had just hired for their project, and his response was, ?your government just delivered 4 F-16?s to Taiwan.? The fact that they were cutting their own throat hadn?t occurred to him, until this was pointed out, diplomatically, the visa then came through. This was in 2008, a form of retaliation I learned that had been going on for quite a few years. > On Oct 19, 2020, at 14:58, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > It would be interesting to know what in fact the U.S. military is planning with respect to China. It is hard for me to believe that they want a war, for they are quite vunerable to China?s military prowess, which is leaping forward. Would Russia help China? Could the u.S. military leaders think they can provoke something they can cntrol such as inhibiting China?s access to the Pacific sea lanes, on which it depends, for instance for oi and trad with the West. What would China do if such were attempted? > > Then, there is the issue of Taipei. Here, the Chinese are on weaker ground, as Taipei becomes more aligned militarily with the U.S. Military action against Taipei seems unlikely (to me). > > The whole business is madness, and there is little in the cards that whomever wins our coming election will improve relations and back off its provocations: Can an empire draw down on its aspirations? > >> On Oct 18, 2020, at 3:57 PM, Karen Aram > wrote: >> >> Mort >> >> In answer to your comments: I?ve read info. from liberal former State Dept., Officials, that there are those who question where we are headed in respect to China. Others are planning talks with Russia, to pull them further into the US orbit, this was the US strategy in the late 70?s in respect to China, when Deng Xiou Ping visited DC, shortly thereafter invading Vietnam with US approval. >> >> It?s quite unlikely to succeed this time, given Russiagate, and the friendship based upon mutual need, between Russia and China since at least 2012. China has the money, Russia has the military and Putin/Lavrov are very smart guys, they know the plan had been to takeover Russia first, then China. A reversal of that plan would be too obvious. >> I don?t see Russia going along with it, unless regime change with a more Yeltsin like leader, comes into play. By ?Yeltsin like? I mean, puppet of the USG. >> >> As to Europe, already our European allies are backing away from us given economics and trade with China, now taking precedence. >> >> The question is will China react militarily to US provocations? They are generally not open to confrontation, they don?t want war, they want to do business and make money, so they keep on building while we keep on destroying. However, the Chinese know well their history of humiliation and will not allow it again. If the US interferes with the BRI as they no doubt are planning, if they force China, by blocking imports of oil or minerals necessary for production, to retaliate, which they could do by controlling the shipping lanes in Asia, anything is possible. >> >> JMHO >> >> >> >> >>> On Oct 18, 2020, at 12:02, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: >>> >>> Quite a report, thoughtful, forceful and referenced. In its predictions, however, it strangely(?) omits any agency of Russia in the ultimate contest and conflict. Europe? The picture presented is dire, although not really possible to predict, neither near term nor long term. >>> >>>> On Oct 18, 2020, at 9:17 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: >>>> >>>> >>>> Some of us have been predicting war with China for some time, at least since Obama's "Pivot to Asia," in 2012 by placing US battleships in the S. China Sea. The US has over 800 military bases outside of >>>> the US with at least 400 surrounding and provoking China. >>>> >>>> >>>> Alfred McCoy in his "Shadows of the American Century," quotes the Rand Corp. "as predicting war with China by 2030." >>>> >>>> >>>> John Pilger produced a film related to the coming war with China. >>>> >>>> >>>> Anyone reading Zbigniew Berezinski's "The Grand Chess Board," of 1997 saw the plan for US hegemony in Eurasia. >>>> >>>> >>>> Danny Haiphong of the "Black Agenda Report," has been writing and discussing US provocations of China. >>>> >>>> >>>> Below is an article by another writer with the BlackAgenda Report, covering the topic of US war with China?..take heed this is what the USG under either Administration, DNC or GOP, is planning >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> https://blackagendareport.com/us-path-war-china-what-be-done?fbclid=IwAR1JkewU9CFHyIl33QuTaxIKREQ04WHequJj2BvcsU8HSHBhdAiHjhIOZNU >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Peace mailing list >>>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >>> >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman.uiuc at gmail.com Wed Oct 21 13:55:26 2020 From: naiman.uiuc at gmail.com (Robert Naiman) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2020 09:55:26 -0400 Subject: [Peace] Compare & Contrast: Chris Murphy vs. Chris Coons on Ending the Unconstitutional Yemen War In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Compare & Contrast: Chris Murphy vs. Chris Coons on Ending the Unconstitutional Yemen War Let me be perfectly clear, as Barack Obama used to say. I am not campaigning for Chris Murphy to become Secretary of State. I have no idea if Chris Murphy actually wants to be Secretary of State, or if he is simply speaking out now on foreign policy issues as he has for years, exactly as Murphy?s office says. But I do know that Chris Coons is a candidate, because Chris Coons says so himself. I also know that the same forces who wanted Iran deal opponent Ted Deutch to become HFAC Chair when Eliot Engel was defeated are backing Chris Coons, because Politico reported that. I also know that the forces who wanted Ted Deutch to become HFAC Chair tried to create an aura of inevitability around his candidacy, to gaslight people into believing that it was a done deal and that resistance to Deutch was futile. And it looks to me like this is what the people supporting Chris Coons are trying to do now, which wouldn?t be surprising at all since it?s the same crowd and that?s how they roll. So the ?campaign? for the Secretary of State slot is on, because Chris Coons and the forces supporting Chris Coons are making it be on. And regardless of whether Chris Murphy is actually a candidate, his name was mentioned in the Politico article as someone in the mix, so Chris Murphy is a germane standard of comparison to understand who Chris Coons is and what he represents. Chris Murphy has been ?good on ending the unconstitutional Yemen war? since before there were any legislative vehicles to try to do something about the war to be good or bad on. Chris Murphy was the principal Democratic author of the first legislative vehicle to try to do something about the war, in early 2016, when Obama was still POTUS. Indeed, it was reading a speech by Chris Murphy against the Yemen war in early 2016 that convinced me to try to end the Yemen war in Congress. Before I saw Chris Murphy?s speech, I believed that it would be futile to try to end the Yemen war in Congress, because that?s what I?d been told to believe by people that I used to trust. When I read Chris Murphy?s speech, I searched the internet for ?Chris Murphy? and ?Yemen,? and discovered that it was Murphy?s SECOND speech against the war. When I saw that it was Chris Murphy?s SECOND speech against the war, my eyes went wide. ?Murphy?s trying to do something about this,? I said to myself. ?Let?s try to organize people to follow Murphy.? Chris Coons has not always been good on ending the Yemen war, even when efforts to do something about it were well underway. He voted against the first effort led by Murphy, Rand Paul, and Al Franken to try to do something, in September 2016, when 27 Senators voted the right way. He voted against the Sanders-Lee-Murphy Yemen War Powers Resolution in March 2018, when most Senate Democrats supported it. The point of bringing this up now is not to punish Chris Coons for being bad on ending the Yemen war in the past, although there would be nothing wrong with that, that would be normal political activity to try to end and prevent wars. The point is to understand what kind of person Chris Coons is. When we ?hire? a politician, we?re hiring them to act in rooms that we won?t be able to see into. It?s important to try to understand what kind of person they are. One of the things that we accomplished between early 2016 and now is that we created a paper trail in the Senate and the House on the Yemen war. A key reason that we have endless wars is that Congressional leaders work to prevent contested votes that would allow us to hold Members of Congress accountable. There?s no paper trail on the other wars now like there is now on the Yemen war. This is why it?s so important that the War Powers Resolution and the Arms Export Control Act have trigger mechanisms that allow Members of Congress to force votes. It?s no accident that these laws were passed in 1973 and 1976, following years of popular activism against the Vietnam War and other U.S. foreign policy abuses that were never authorized by Congressional vote. Unfortunately, we haven?t ended the Yemen war yet. Biden has promised that if elected, he will end the Yemen war. If past is prologue, there will likely be pushback, including from Democrats. Look at the pushback Obama got from Democrats like Ted Deutch and Eliot Engel on the Iran deal, even though Obama was elected promising to do that and base Democratic activists who supported Obama were overwhelmingly in support. If there is pushback against efforts to end the Yemen war in a Biden presidency, who do you want as Secretary of State? Surely not Chris Coons, who voted for the Yemen war before he voted against it. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Oct 21 23:36:47 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2020 16:36:47 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_US_troop_buildup_expected_along_Russian?= =?utf-8?q?_border?= References: <3b33b8b02bdc833e727219156.9c85e5de6e.20201021220051.c33e971dea.3dae21f5@mail137.suw121.mcdlv.net> Message-ID: > > View this email in your browser > > Below you'll find the daily news and updates from the desk of MintPressNews.com . Discover an article you missed or revisit an old headline that is still relevant today. If something piques your interest share it on social media or forward this email to a friend. > Is the European Union Qualified to Broker Peace Between Israel and Palestine? > While Washington is openly pro-Israel, the EU has played a more clever game: selling Palestinians empty words while selling Israel lethal weapons. > > The post Is the European Union Qualified to Broker Peace Between Israel and Palestine? appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Protests Against Greed and Inequality Are Spreading Like Wildfire Through Latin America > Historic protests are taking place across Latin America as people take to the streets to voice their displeasure at the IMF, government corruption, and the spread of fascism. > > The post Protests Against Greed and Inequality Are Spreading Like Wildfire Through Latin America appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Defense Sectary Visits Hawkish Atlantic Council to Announce US Troop Buildup on Russia Border > US Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited the notorious Atlantic Council, funded by a who?s who of weapons makers and despotic regimes, to announce that the US would not, indeed, be withdrawing troops from Germany but sending them to Russia?s border instead. > > The post Defense Sectary Visits Hawkish Atlantic Council to Announce US Troop Buildup on Russia Border appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > MintPress Is Going Behind The Headlines > That is why as part of our effort to continue reporting on stories you won?t find anywhere else, we have teamed up with Behind the Headlines, a new, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of journalism that dares to challenge official narratives and bucks party lines. > > The post MintPress Is Going Behind The Headlines appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > From Assassinations to Sanctions: Emergency Powers and the Rise of the Imperial Presidency > A decades-long push to concentrate power in the Oval Office through emergency response legislation has made the Office of the President more powerful than ever. > > The post From Assassinations to Sanctions: Emergency Powers and the Rise of the Imperial Presidency appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Don?t Vote for a Psychopath: Tyranny at the Hands of a Psychopathic Government > Studies have shown that despite clear evidence of the damage that has already been inflicted on our nation and its citizens by a psychopathic government, voters continue to elect psychopaths to positions of power and influence. > > The post Don?t Vote for a Psychopath: Tyranny at the Hands of a Psychopathic Government appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > > > > 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 karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Oct 21 23:36:47 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 21 Oct 2020 16:36:47 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_US_troop_buildup_expected_along_Russian?= =?utf-8?q?_border?= References: <3b33b8b02bdc833e727219156.9c85e5de6e.20201021220051.c33e971dea.3dae21f5@mail137.suw121.mcdlv.net> Message-ID: > > View this email in your browser > > Below you'll find the daily news and updates from the desk of MintPressNews.com . Discover an article you missed or revisit an old headline that is still relevant today. If something piques your interest share it on social media or forward this email to a friend. > Is the European Union Qualified to Broker Peace Between Israel and Palestine? > While Washington is openly pro-Israel, the EU has played a more clever game: selling Palestinians empty words while selling Israel lethal weapons. > > The post Is the European Union Qualified to Broker Peace Between Israel and Palestine? appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Protests Against Greed and Inequality Are Spreading Like Wildfire Through Latin America > Historic protests are taking place across Latin America as people take to the streets to voice their displeasure at the IMF, government corruption, and the spread of fascism. > > The post Protests Against Greed and Inequality Are Spreading Like Wildfire Through Latin America appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Defense Sectary Visits Hawkish Atlantic Council to Announce US Troop Buildup on Russia Border > US Defense Secretary Mark Esper visited the notorious Atlantic Council, funded by a who?s who of weapons makers and despotic regimes, to announce that the US would not, indeed, be withdrawing troops from Germany but sending them to Russia?s border instead. > > The post Defense Sectary Visits Hawkish Atlantic Council to Announce US Troop Buildup on Russia Border appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > MintPress Is Going Behind The Headlines > That is why as part of our effort to continue reporting on stories you won?t find anywhere else, we have teamed up with Behind the Headlines, a new, non-profit organization dedicated to the promotion of journalism that dares to challenge official narratives and bucks party lines. > > The post MintPress Is Going Behind The Headlines appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > From Assassinations to Sanctions: Emergency Powers and the Rise of the Imperial Presidency > A decades-long push to concentrate power in the Oval Office through emergency response legislation has made the Office of the President more powerful than ever. > > The post From Assassinations to Sanctions: Emergency Powers and the Rise of the Imperial Presidency appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Don?t Vote for a Psychopath: Tyranny at the Hands of a Psychopathic Government > Studies have shown that despite clear evidence of the damage that has already been inflicted on our nation and its citizens by a psychopathic government, voters continue to elect psychopaths to positions of power and influence. > > The post Don?t Vote for a Psychopath: Tyranny at the Hands of a Psychopathic Government appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > > > > 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 karenaram at hotmail.com Mon Oct 26 18:00:29 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2020 11:00:29 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: [New post] Nothing Will Fundamentally Change: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix References: <139971992.9046.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: > > New post on Caitlin Johnstone > > > Nothing Will Fundamentally Change: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative?Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone > A propaganda machine that can make people worry about foreign governments while their own government is destroying lives in their own country and all over the world is a propaganda machine that can make people believe anything. > > ~ > > Americans are hurt by their own government infinitely more than they are hurt by Russia, China and Iran. People around the world are hurt by the US government far more than Americans are hurt by their own government. Stop worrying about foreigners, America. It serves only the powerful. > > ~ > > Joe Biden: Nothing will fundamentally change. > > Liberals: THIS IS THE MOST IMPORTANT ELECTION OF ALL TIME > > ~ > > The US government has killed millions and displaced tens of millions just since 9/11. Babbling about how this election has unique importance because the current president will take America down a dark road is going to fall on a lot of deaf ears around the world. > > ~ > > It's so dumb how Americans tell me not to talk about the US election. I literally write about what's in the news for a living. I'm not going to suddenly stop criticizing the two-headed one-party system of the most powerful government on earth just because there's another pretend election in the works. > > ~ > > US foreign policy is far more important than US domestic policy. It affects far more people far more severely, and elite manipulators pour far more energy into maintaining the status quo on foreign policy than domestic policy. Yet the presidential race practically ignores it. There's a reason for this, and it ain't pretty. > > ~ > > It sure is a mighty strange coincidence how US democracy keeps getting attacked by nations it just so happens to want to target and it's always in ways that are completely invisible to the public and the evidence for the attacks is always classified. > > I mean there are all sorts of ways that a country can be attacked, but the only ways the country that is literally always at war ever gets attacked is in ways that nobody can see and we just have to take the word of the same government agencies that are responsible for the wars. Mighty, mighty strange I say. > > ~ > > 1. We are in the middle of a slow-motion third world war between the US empire and the remaining nations which have resisted its attempts to absorb them. > > 2. Propaganda is used to move this world war along. > > 3. Points one and two explain all these US "election meddling" narratives. > > ~ > > To be clear, any nation in the world would be fully justified in interfering in US elections, since the US is by far the very worst offender in foreign election meddling. You don't get to normalize something by doing it constantly and then say it's wrong. > > And that's just election interference; it says nothing of invasions, coups, proxy wars and other regime change operations the US wages. You can't do these things and then say it's wrong to interfere in US democracy. It isn't wrong; what's good for the goose is good for the gander. > > The US uses its military, economic and cultural might to bully and manipulate the entire world, to the point where people in many nations are affected by US politics more than Americans themselves are. It's not valid to interfere like that and then say others can't reciprocate. > > None of this is to concede that any of these nations actually are interfering in the US election; the US government lies about these things constantly and should never be taken on faith about them. But if they did interfere, it would be perfectly legitimate for them to do so. > > ~ > > Believing something because everyone else believes it is stupid. Believing something because everyone else believes it in an information ecosystem that's controlled by powerful sociopaths is insane. > > ~ > > If war propaganda stopped working and people realized what the imperial war machine is actually doing, it would immediately become impossible for the military to recruit. > > "I joined the Army, Ma." > > "You mean you're gonna kill kids for money? How am I supposed to tell people that??" > > ~ > > Rags-to-riches stories of people clawing their way to the top from nothing are just the modern day equivalent of fairy tales about peasants discovering they're actually royalty: wildly improbable fantasies to let the commoners imagine the system could one day work for them, too. > > ~ > > You are not free if you are not mentally free. A truly sovereign human has liberated their mind from all delusions. Propaganda-generated delusions. Culture-generated delusions. Ego-generated delusions. > > _____________________________ > > Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following my antics on Twitter , throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of my sweet merchandise , buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I?m trying to do with this platform, click here . Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I?ve written) in any way they like free of charge. > > > Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 > > #biden , #election , #foreign-policy , #narrative-matrix , #politics , #propaganda , #war > Caitlin Johnstone | October 25, 2020 at 1:51 am | Tags: biden , election , foreign policy , narrative matrix , Politics , propaganda , war | Categories: Article | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-2lU > Comment See all comments > Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Caitlin Johnstone. > Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions . > > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/10/25/nothing-will-fundamentally-change-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From jbn at forestfield.org Tue Oct 27 02:54:25 2020 From: jbn at forestfield.org (J.B. Nicholson) Date: Mon, 26 Oct 2020 21:54:25 -0500 Subject: [Peace] Suggested AOTA/NFN videos Message-ID: <3046a9c0519b60c13aceff367380f49a42a53183.camel@forestfield.org> Here are some suggested videos for upcoming timeslots which I just sent to UPTV's Jason Liggett. As per usual, I offered these videos with the recommendation to let other AWARE members have priority over my recommendations. These recommendations should last for a couple of weeks: The Intercept https://youtube.com/watch?v=EGI4fc_VB7c -- (1h 23m) Glenn Greenwald interviews Ira Glasser, former head of the ACLU and star of the new documentary about his life and ACLU work "Mighty Ira". Consortium News https://youtube.com/watch?v=LNskcUR-L3s -- (1h 38m) Roger Waters, John Pilger, and Ray McGovern discuss the trial of Julian Assange. https://youtube.com/watch?v=m780Fzt2joo -- (1h 24m) Comedy and the U.S. Election with Consortium News and political comedians Lee Camp, Ron Placone, Juice Media, and Randy Credico. RT Transcript https://www.rt.com/shows/on-contact/504451-christian-parenti-radical-hamilton-book/ Video https://cdnv.rt.com/files/2020.10/5f951ee185f5406e6d22790b.mp4 (28m) -- Chris Hedges talks to Christian Parenti about Alexander Hamilton, the first treasury secretary of the United States, who has been called the founding father of US capitalism and imperialism. Black Agenda Report https://youtube.com/watch?v=Rg6Y0nmIhw0 -- (40m) "Left Lens": Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley talk about the upcoming US presidential election. Empire Files https://youtube.com/watch?v=tUdODhFDtQg -- (7m 19s) Biden vs. Trump on foreign policy Thanks. -J From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Oct 28 13:36:28 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2020 06:36:28 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The best speech no one wants to hear Message-ID: https://youtu.be/ublFSlfznig From karenaram at hotmail.com Wed Oct 28 13:45:32 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Wed, 28 Oct 2020 06:45:32 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_=5BNew_post=5D_Biden_Will_NOT_Be_Soft_O?= =?utf-8?q?n_China=3B_He=E2=80=99ll_Continue_Trump=E2=80=99s_Aggressions?= References: <139971992.9065.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: > > New post on Caitlin Johnstone > > > Biden Will NOT Be Soft On China; He?ll Continue Trump?s?Aggressions by Caitlin Johnstone > Hunter Biden's former business associate Tony Bobulinski has given a lengthy interview on Fox News' Tucker Carlson Tonight, testifying about corrupt international business practices within the Biden family involving China and other countries, and allegedly involving Joe Biden himself while he was vice president. > > Toward the end of the interview came the really important part, the part we were all meant to see. > > "What are the implications of this going forward?" Carlson asked . "If Joe Biden is elected president, which could very well happen, how does this constrain his ability to deal with China?? > > ?Are you asking for my personal opinion?? Bobulinski asked. > > ?I am,? Carlson replied. ?I?m asking for your opinion, as someone who?s worked with the Chinese.? > > ?So, I think Joe Biden and the Biden family are compromised,? said Bobulinski. > > And that is it. Beneath all the partisan noise and electoral implications, that is the message we were meant to take away from the interview. Not that the Biden family is corrupt, not that Joe Biden lied about being uninvolved in his son's business enterprises as vice president, but that Joe Biden is compromised in favor of China. That is the story that?s going to keep resurfacing. > > We are being played. > > This would after all be the same Tucker Carlson who has been pushing ridiculous conspiracy theories about Democratic Party officials being secret Chinese intelligence agents and Covid-19 being a lab-made virus deliberately released by China , and just generally whipping up anti-China hysteria in his viewers at every possible opportunity . This would also be the same Tucker Carlson who tried to join the CIA after college. The same Fox News that reliably propagandizes its right-wing audience into alignment with imperialist agendas that resonate with rightist sensibilities. > > I don't know how or at what level, but we are being played. A narrative is being aggressively rammed down our throats about China in exactly the same way it was being aggressively rammed down our throats about Russia four years ago; two unabsorbed nations the US government has long had plans to attack and undermine . > > If Biden Wins, Russiagate Will Magically Morph Into Chinagate > > "Ohhh god. It?s happening again."https://t.co/SeCQFhvCqE > ? Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) October 27, 2020 > Russiagate was never really about Trump. It was never about his campaign staff meeting with Russians, it was never about a pee tape, it was never about an investigation into any kind of hidden loyalties to the Kremlin. Russiagate was about narrative managing the United States into a new cold war with Russia with the ultimate target being its far more powerful ally China, and ensuring that Trump played along with that agenda. > > The strongest evidence against Russiagate was always the one fact neither Democrats nor Republicans ever wanted to look at and acknowledge: that Trump has in fact spent his entire term advancing many dangerous cold war escalations against Moscow in the form of sanctions, shredded treaties, a much more aggressive Nuclear Posture Review, NATO expansionism, arming Ukraine, attacking Russia's allies and other measures which directly threaten the Russian Federation and undermine its interests. > > If Biden gets in we can expect the same thing: a president who advances escalations against both Russia and China while being accused of the other party of being soft on China. Both parties will have their foot on the gas toward brinkmanship with a nuclear-armed nation, with no one's foot anywhere near the brakes. > > You simply cannot become the presidential nominee of a major party in America if the powers that be aren't confident you will advance their most high-priority agendas. Barack "Pivot to Asia " Obama would not have interfered in the Democratic primary to install Joe Biden if he believed Biden would interfere in the militaristic agendas against he'd initiated against China. If the US intelligence cartel had had any suspicion that Biden might obstruct their agendas in the eastern hemisphere, his presidential campaign would have been sabotaged over a year ago. > > Those with power in the United States know that Biden will play along with their planned cold war rollouts against China, so you may be sure of it as well. Obama's escalations against China were picked up and carried further by Trump (who just announced a planned $2 billion weapon sale to Taiwan), and if Biden wins the election we may be certain that he will continue and expand those aggressions even further. > > Newsweek's claim that 600 Chinese community groups in the U.S. are "arms of the CCP" is based entirely on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute?which is literally funded by the U.S. State Dept & Raytheon. > > This is full-blown McCarthyist manufacturing consent for war on China. https://t.co/p7mYBstgiN > ? Qiao Collective (@qiaocollective) October 26, 2020 > This will happen. If you don't believe me, watch and see. Disconnect yourself from the narratives and get out of your partisan echo chamber as much as possible, and just watch the actual information about what's really happening. If Biden is elected you will with absolute certainty see his administration rolling out hostile cold war escalations against China, regardless of accusations by Tucker Carlson et al. about secret loyalties to Beijing. > > All signs indicate that Americans are being prepped by the US intelligence cartel and its stenographers in the mass media for an increasingly hostile relationship with China, regardless of who wins the election. A new report by?Newsweek warns that 600 community groups in the United States are covertly working to foment US unrest under the direct guidance of the Communist Party of China. Newsweek sources its report in an analysis by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which is a think tank explicitly designed to manufacture anti-China sentiment that is funded by the US State Department and numerous arms manufacturers. These are the nice friendly people who we're meant to believe just want to tell us the truth about what's going on for our own good. > > We're being bombarded with more and more such psyops by increasingly forceful narrative managers alongside statements from US intelligence agencies warning us that both Russia and China are working to interfere in the US election. There's a virtual press conference scheduled a few hours from this writing by the DOJ and FBI reportedly on a "China-related national security matter" as well, and it's hard to imagine that will go in any other direction than all the other narrative-shaping we're being subjected to. > > DOJ & FBI to hold virtual news conference on a China-related national security matter at 11amET tomorrow > > ? Jesse Rodriguez (@JesseRodriguez) October 27, 2020 > After Carlson prompted him to share his opinion that Joe Biden is "compromised" regarding China, Bobulinski was then asked if he thinks all this information is going to just be repressed and forgotten about by the liberal media for the next four years. > > "I think the American people should be demanding that this is investigated and I don?t know what the right party to do that is. Is that the DOJ, is that the FBI, is that Congress, is that the Senate? But there absolutely should be no scenario that this isn't investigated," replied Bobulinski. > > Sure Tony, sounds great. Hey maybe the DOJ should appoint a Special Counsel to ensure an impartial investigation into this urgent matter over two years while Biden's political opponents circulate endless viral conspiracy theories about the president being dragged from the White House in chains once the investigation is complete. Hell, why not just use Robert Mueller again? If we're going to recycle the whole script we might as well go all in. > > But of course, as far as America's spies and cold warriors are concerned, if it ain't broke why fix it. Partisan hacks bought into the Russiagate narrative hook, line and sinker, so there's no reason not to use it again. This one will actually be an easier sell now that Republicans are looking for retaliation and Democrats have lost any moral leg to stand on in "have you no shame" objection. It worked once, so they'll just do it again. > > How To Tell Real News From Useless Narrative Fluff > > "Just watch where the money is going, where the resources are going, where the weapons are going and where the people are going, and ignore all the narrative chatter."https://t.co/WOKi1OTgIx > ? Caitlin Johnstone (@caitoz) April 4, 2020 > Ignore the narratives, watch the data . Watch where the weapons are moving, where the money and resources and people are moving. You will see a much, much different picture than the one you're being told to see. > > _____________________________ > > Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following my antics on Twitter , throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of my sweet merchandise , buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I?m trying to do with this platform, click here . Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I?ve written) in any way they like free of charge. > > > Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 > > #biden , #bobulinski , #china , #chinagate , #cold-war , #russia , #russiagate , #tucker-carlson > Caitlin Johnstone | October 28, 2020 at 1:08 pm | Tags: biden , bobulinski , china , Chinagate , cold war , Russia , Russiagate , tucker carlson | Categories: Article , News | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-2md > Comment See all comments > Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Caitlin Johnstone. > Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions . > > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/10/28/biden-will-not-be-soft-on-china-hell-continue-trumps-aggressions/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From brussel at illinois.edu Thu Oct 29 00:51:43 2020 From: brussel at illinois.edu (Brussel, Morton K) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 00:51:43 +0000 Subject: [Peace] The best speech no one wants to hear In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: <75189F55-75A4-4AB2-BA35-86410FDACCB1@illinois.edu> He talks about words, but he uses them without giving any evidence for what he is saying. It is simply a rant. This is not to say that climate change is not an existential problem for so many, and the world has not responded as it should, but he throws out the ?billions/words? numbers and words without reasoning. Yes, and he?s too free with vulgarity; it doesn?t strengthen his argument. ?mkb > On Oct 28, 2020, at 8:36 AM, Karen Aram via Peace wrote: > > https://youtu.be/ublFSlfznig > _______________________________________________ > Peace mailing list > Peace at lists.chambana.net > https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Oct 29 12:46:28 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 05:46:28 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The best speech no one wants to hear In-Reply-To: <75189F55-75A4-4AB2-BA35-86410FDACCB1@illinois.edu> References: <75189F55-75A4-4AB2-BA35-86410FDACCB1@illinois.edu> Message-ID: Thats his point Mort., whether millions or billions, or mere thousands or even hundreds starving to death due to climate change, does it matter exactly how many are predicted to die so horribly due to the world doing nothing? Roger Hallam as the co founder of ?Extinction Rebellion,? is not one just using ?words,? he has been very active implementing the most and unfortunately last ditch efforts to have the world wake up to the catastrophe facing us, that is ?civil resistance.? He has been arrested, gone to jail, and suffered the many repercussions of political activism, that is being criticized for not saying or doing what we like or what we want to hear. > On Oct 28, 2020, at 17:51, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > He talks about words, but he uses them without giving any evidence for what he is saying. It is simply a rant. > This is not to say that climate change is not an existential problem for so many, and the world has not responded as it should, but he throws out the ?billions/words? numbers and words without reasoning. > Yes, and he?s too free with vulgarity; it doesn?t strengthen his argument. > > ?mkb > > > > >> On Oct 28, 2020, at 8:36 AM, Karen Aram via Peace wrote: >> >> https://youtu.be/ublFSlfznig >> _______________________________________________ >> Peace mailing list >> Peace at lists.chambana.net >> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace > From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Oct 29 18:03:11 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 11:03:11 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: The Times exposes Biden's plans for Latin America References: <3b33b8b02bdc833e727219156.9c85e5de6e.20201028220356.1a68502021.f10ed616@mail254.suw14.mcdlv.net> Message-ID: > > View this email in your browser > > Below you'll find the daily news and updates from the desk of MintPressNews.com . Discover an article you missed or revisit an old headline that is still relevant today. If something piques your interest share it on social media or forward this email to a friend. > Times Editorial Lets Slip Joe Biden?s Latin America Policy: More Obama-Style Coups > Figures on both the right and the left are presenting Biden as a progressive champion, the reality though, is that he has always represented the right-wing of the Democratic Party, and his Latin America policy is no exception. > > The post Times Editorial Lets Slip Joe Biden?s Latin America Policy: More Obama-Style Coups appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > Bolivia?s Hardline Christian Govt Charged with Massacring Protesters as Morales Returns from Exile > In her last days in office, US-backed strongwoman Jeanine A?ez is attempting to push through judicial reforms that could help her in the coming months should she face trial for her crimes. > > The post Bolivia?s Hardline Christian Govt Charged with Massacring Protesters as Morales Returns from Exile appeared first on MintPress News . > > > Read on ? > > > > > 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 karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Oct 29 21:52:54 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 14:52:54 -0700 Subject: [Peace] The best speech no one wants to hear In-Reply-To: <1CF8CBD8-03E0-43EE-9343-A4B7188FDD1C@illinois.edu> References: <75189F55-75A4-4AB2-BA35-86410FDACCB1@illinois.edu> <1CF8CBD8-03E0-43EE-9343-A4B7188FDD1C@illinois.edu> Message-ID: I have on more than one occasion recommended his book: Common Sense for the 21st. Century,? which explains why after 30 some years, organizations have all failed, in spite of everything they have done. People don?t listen to the data or facts that you think need to be included in every speech. The hard physics isn?t always necessary for everyone, I highly recommend this link with two recent interviews, the one on Hardtalk is quite good.https://www.rogerhallam.com/ > On Oct 29, 2020, at 14:08, Brussel, Morton K wrote: > > I?m much more sympathetic to the end of his talk than to the beginning (I did not listen to the end when I responded). Revolution is the answer, he pleads to his discouragingly meagre audience. > Get up and do something, act! Only you ordinary people can do what is needed, he says. > Indeed, he is right that a mass movement is necessary to to confront climate change. But I?m afraid Hallam is whistling in the dark. Exagerating the imminent danger without laying the evidence lessens his impact; the future?how many decades before catastrophe, the several billions! dead? remains uncertain. But yes, ultimately, whatever that means, that may come to pass. > >> On Oct 29, 2020, at 7:46 AM, Karen Aram > wrote: >> >> Thats his point Mort., whether millions or billions, or mere thousands or even hundreds starving to death due to climate change, does it matter exactly how many are predicted to die so horribly due to the world doing nothing? >> >> Roger Hallam as the co founder of ?Extinction Rebellion,? is not one just using ?words,? he has been very active implementing the most and unfortunately last ditch efforts to have the world wake up to the catastrophe facing us, that is ?civil resistance.? He has been arrested, gone to jail, and suffered the many repercussions of political activism, that is being criticized for not saying or doing what we like or what we want to hear. >> >> >>> On Oct 28, 2020, at 17:51, Brussel, Morton K > wrote: >>> >>> He talks about words, but he uses them without giving any evidence for what he is saying. It is simply a rant. >>> This is not to say that climate change is not an existential problem for so many, and the world has not responded as it should, but he throws out the ?billions/words? numbers and words without reasoning. >>> Yes, and he?s too free with vulgarity; it doesn?t strengthen his argument. >>> >>> ?mkb >>> >>> >>> >>> >>>> On Oct 28, 2020, at 8:36 AM, Karen Aram via Peace > wrote: >>>> >>>> https://youtu.be/ublFSlfznig >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Peace mailing list >>>> Peace at lists.chambana.net >>>> https://lists.chambana.net/mailman/listinfo/peace >>> >> > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Thu Oct 29 22:55:50 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 15:55:50 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Congrats to Glen Greenwald for his integrity, he resigned from the Intercept Message-ID: "Resigning from the Intercept, Glenn Greenwald cited as the last straw the decision of ?authoritarian, fear-driven, repressive? editors in New York to suppress his article critical of Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden.? https://www.rt.com/news/504967-greenwald-resignation-intercept-biden-censorship/?fbclid=IwAR2y-2QdilyB_zfRuSRkv-8salaUfuxx-wvPrhlQPpAZR -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Oct 30 00:47:23 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Thu, 29 Oct 2020 17:47:23 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?60_Minutes=E2=80=99_Toothy_Porn?= Message-ID: OCTOBER 28, 2020 60 Minutes? Toothy Porn BY LOUISA WILLCOX Facebook Twitter Reddit Email Our relationship with wildlife has thankfully evolved since 80 AD when during a single day 50,000 cheering fans packed the Roman Coliseum to witness the slaughter of over 5,000 animals ? including bears. Or since Elizabethan times when blindfolded chained bears were pitted against mastiffs to entertain blood-thirsty drunken crowds. Or since bounty hunters and well-armed settlers in the American West killed every wolf, bear, and cougar they could find in the name of Manifest Destiny. Our treatment of animals has surely become more enlightened. We have banned wanton abuse of animals and curbed killing of wildlife. We have also learned a lot about the critical role that large carnivores play in the web of life and our national psyche. Our collective grief over the extirpation of many species fueled the passage of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) that codifies a national moral commitment to preventing extinctions. But just how much have we really evolved since the days of Nero? And why is it that so many are still entertained by the sight of animals being harassed, slaughtered, and eviscerated? What explains the thirst to possess body parts taken from large toothy predators? If, in fact, we were so enlightened, copies of Outdoor Life with covers featuring snarling grizzlies would no longer fly off the racks. And shows such as Savage Wild or Ted Nugent?s Spirit of the Wild that feature animals being gunned down and tormented would not have so many enthusiastic fans. The truth is that, below the veneer of civilization, we are still gripped with an inchoate ancient fear and fascination with animals that can kill us ? that often translates into a visceral need to dominate, eliminate, or just simply be titillated. 60 Minutes? Grizzly Gore: If it Bleeds It Leads An episode aired by 60 Minutes on October 11th is emblematic. Despite its billing as a deliberative exploration of challenges of coexisting with grizzly bears, the show was little more than a buffet of toothy pornography. The show began with scenes of an ensnared bear lunging at the camera ? not that different perhaps from what Shakespeare saw near the Globe Theater. Then there was a grizzly attacking a cow and rolling it over in a gory free-for-all ? reminiscent of popular 19th century exhibitions where grizzlies were pitted against bulls in front of cheering crowds. Then, enter stage left, Montana Fish Wildlife and Parks biologist Eric Wenum who invited 60 Minutes correspondent Bill Whitaker to put his hand into the drugged and blindfolded bear?s mouth. Throw in footage of a bloodied hunter being life flighted by helicopter to a hospital after being mauled by a grizzly, and your ratings are guaranteed. Proving the point, the show was viewed by more than 12.4 million viewers, helping 60 Minutes retain its place for the third straight week among Nielson?s top five weekly broadcasts . The 60 Minutes reporters seemed consummately indifferent to basic facts, including how rarely grizzlies maul people or kill cattle. The show?s title was ?People and Grizzlies Learn to Live with Each Other in Montana,? but the featured images belied the purported theme. And the producers granted just a few short minutes to the show?s only professional practitioner of coexistence, the dedicated Bryce Andrews, who did his best to explain about how people do indeed manage to live amicably with bears. Responsible journalism ? really? Why the Media Matters to Conservation ? and Our Democracy Despite the fact that journalism increasingly seems to offer us little more than circus entertainment, the media matters, not only to conserving our remaining bastions of wildlands and wildlife, but more broadly to the functioning of a healthy democracy. As the fourth pillar of democracy, the media is vital to fostering a democratic culture that configures our political system and provides citizens with information to make enlightened decisions. Partisan media biased towards a few well-heeled individuals or a toxic political agenda can endanger our democratic system. Think Fox News. Likewise, media that offers little more than red meat for a blood-thirsty throng betrays its civic duty. As the most successful news program in TV history, CBS?s 60 Minutes bears special responsibility to uphold the highest standards of integrity. But despite once being the gold standard of network magazine programs, the show has come under fire during recent years for sloppy and promotional journalism ? and above all for featuring violent content. Former CBS and NBC programming president Jeff Sagansky explained the gore with this: ?The number one priority in television is not to transmit quality programming to viewers, but to deliver consumers to advertisers. We aren?t going to get rid of violence until we get rid of advertisers.? There you have it: violence to enrich greedy advertisers. Forget the public trust. And just as disconcerting was the behavior of public officials featured in the show. Of Government Complicity Under the US Endangered Species Act, or ESA, the Fish and Wildlife Service is charged with recovering endangered and threatened species as trustee for all of us ? those living and those who come after. All Americans have a stake and voice in management decisions ? and not just those who live near places occupied by endangered species. Until fairly recently, the Fish and Wildlife Service took its job seriously ? and grizzly bears benefited. Since 1975, when grizzlies were granted ESA protections, the government has been guided, albeit sometimes tortuously, by a rational science-based approach to protecting habitat and promoting coexistence between bears and people. New technologies such as bear-proof dumpsters, electric fence, and bear pepper spray have also reduced conflicts. And a cadre of people specializing in coexistence practices have helped citizens make peace with bears. But perhaps the most important gains have involved the debunking of myths of our European ancestors that fueled vicious pogroms against grizzlies and other large carnivores. This has been achieved in a multitude of ways, including through cutting-edge science, enlightened documentaries, and opportunities for visitors to our National Parks to see grizzly bears for themselves. One small contribution has involved banning the public and press from trapping operations. Not only is the presence of spectators potentially dangerous, but the venue is also guaranteed to offer up provoked pissed-off bears that reinforce harmful old stereotypes. Until the recent 60 Minutes episode, I had not seen media coverage that featured trapping grizzlies, at least not since 1960s National Geographic specials that featured the pioneering Yellowstone studies of grizzly bear researchers John and Frank Craighead. But that was a different era ? before the endangered plight of grizzly bears was widely recognized, when we knew relatively little about these amazing animals. So why would state and federal wildlife managers invite the team of visibly nervous 60 Minutes greenhorns from New York City to film a trapped distraught bear, in contravention of long-standing practices and policies? Only one explanation seems plausible. Politics. But first some background. Damn the Torpedoes, Sound the Alarms Regional politicians and the state wildlife managers from Montana, Wyoming and Idaho have flogged Fish & Wildlife Service during the last 20 years to strip ESA protections from Yellowstone grizzlies. Their prize is trophy hunting grizzlies and unfettered exploitation of federal lands. Brow beaten, the Fish & Wildlife Service has capitulated and become complicit in the states? agenda ? despite overwhelming opposition from independent scientists, conservationists, native peoples, and hundreds of thousands of citizens who flock to places such as Yellowstone hoping to catch a glimpse of a grizzly bear in the wild. A series of court rulings have blocked the government?s attempts to remove ESA protections, most recently in 2018 and, again in 2020 when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the district court?s decision. In a previous court ruling that restored federal protections for Yellowstone?s bruins in 2009, a federal judge lambasted the Fish & Wildlife Services? ?full steam ahead, damn the torpedoes? approach . But the Fish & Wildlife Service did not pause, but barged instead towards a second legal defeat under the whip of regional politicians and Trump?s administers. So it was no surprise that last summer Interior Secretary David Bernhardt?an oil and energy industry lobbyist?traveled to Montana to meet privately with ranchers, hunters, and conservative politicians to assure them that the third effort to remove ESA protections for grizzlies would be the charm. This from the man charged with protecting 250 million acres of public lands and recovering roughly 1,300 endangered species, from Franklin?s bumblebees to North Atlantic right whales. Continuing the drumroll, just last week Trump?s recently appointed Director of the Fish & Wildlife Service, Aurelia Skipwith, hand-in-hand with Montana Senator Steve Daines , convened a private meeting to assure state officials and ranchers that delisting grizzlies was at the top of their ?to do? list. In the meantime, they assured their regressive audience that they would loosen restrictions on killing grizzly bears. To hedge their bets, Daines and others have also introduced bills in Congress to legislatively remove ESA protections for grizzlies. Notably, these Trump sycophants declined to talk to some of the many Montanans who love grizzlies?or to the millions of visitors to Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks, or the many people working in the Blackfoot River drainage, Tom Miner Basin, or Madison Valley who have worked so hard to promote peaceful coexistence between grizzlies and people. If there was any doubt, the Lords of Yesteryear have proven that they are on the wrong side of history?and that their fealty is to an intolerant and fearful minority rather than to the national public. But these corrupt politicians have not acted alone. Journalists have been complicit. ?If it bleeds it leads? still prevails in pressrooms. This trope explains the disturbing number of recent stories in regional papers that continue to hype grizzly bear depredations, maulings, and conflicts. Stories about successful coexistence, the fascinating lifeways of grizzlies, or the thrill of a family spotting their first grizzlies tend to end up on the cutting room floor. I naively hoped that 60 Minutes, one the most watched shows in the country, would do better. Enter Bernhardt?s Handmaid, Hilary Cooley of FWS Hilary Cooley, Grizzly Bear Recovery Coordinator for the Fish & Wildlife Service, certainly played her part, carelessly sprinkling false or misleading claims throughout her interview. She began by lying about gains in grizzly bear numbers, claiming that populations have tripled in size when they have not even doubled according to data from her own agency. Bears numbered roughly 1,300 individuals during the mid-1970s when grizzlies were given ESA protections. Today, grizzly bear number little more than 1,800. You do the math. She went on to hype the severity of conflicts and the impact of grizzlies on people, stating that ?Bears can be really hard to live with. They kill livestock?it?s a big impact.? Actually, not. In one recent study , grizzly bears killed between 0.01 and 0.03 percent (that?s one one-hundredth to three one-hundredth of a percent) of total cattle numbers in Montana, Idaho and Wyoming. More than 99% of annual deaths are attributable to disease, weather, birthing, and theft ? not depredation. Moreover, the state reimburses ranchers for losses to predators. And most of the ranchers in grizzly bear strongholds have deep pockets and are well able to afford losses caused by grizzly bears. For most people the grizzly is a star attraction, not an oppressive impact. Newcomers are flooding into the region because of its clean water, clean air, good schools, public lands, and abundant wildlife ? and the presence of grizzlies and wolves is part of the appeal. Hilary went on to assert: ?If there?s a threat to human safety, we remove it right off the bat.? This is news to me and anyone else who has been following grizzly bear management for the last several decades. The ESA does allow people to kill a grizzly in self-defense, but not otherwise. And ever since 1986, when the Fish and Wildlife Service established policies for dealing with grizzly bear-human conflicts, the rule has been ?three strikes and you are out? ? meaning that the government?s policy is to try to non-lethally resolve a conflict at least three times before ending a grizzly?s life. According to Hilary?s interpretation, the government should have offed one of the most famous grizzlies who ever lived, Grand Teton Park?s rock star matriarch grizzly Number 399 . As a young bear, she mauled a jogger who ran by her as she fed on an elk carcass. Thankfully, the Park Superintendent gave her a second chance. Grizzly 399 has gone on to safely navigate throngs of delighted visitors for the last two decades while teaching her cubs to do the same. Collaring Grizzlies to Kill More Then enter, once more, Eric Wenum. Subjecting this grizzly to a traumatic ordeal was justified for research purposes, he claimed. What he didn?t bother to explain is that grizzlies are trapped, immobilized, tattooed, deprived of a tooth, and fitted with a radio-collar for no other reason than counting them to bolster the case for removal of ESA protections. Because current methods depend solely on females to estimate population size, they alone matter to the ?research? agenda. And that?s why, after tormenting the small male bear, Wenum simply released him without a radio collar. That bear did not count ? other than as a momentary source of entertainment. But all of this context would have probably been lost on a film crew from New York City with limited time, hunger for a hook, and little interest in sorting through the political agenda of their guides. 60 Minutes Does it Again to Grizzlies Watching the show, I flashed back to 2005, when I was interviewed by Leslie Stahl for a 60 Minutes episode ostensibly about an earlier delisting decision. I was excited that the producers were interested enough in the science aspects of story to attend a workshop in Yellowstone with grizzly bear experts. But I was not prepared for what aired. ?Not in My Back Yard? was hardly about science at all. Instead it featured the emotional story about the Oswalds, a California family that had just built their dream house in grizzly bear habitat near Cody, Wyoming and were terrified when a grizzly showed up in their backyard ? and to their horror, chewed on their hot tub and meat-smelling barbeque. Begging the question about why the fearful family would relocate to the heart of grizzly bear habitat, it is noteworthy that 60 Minutes chose not to interview some of the many thousand people in the region whose lives are enriched by the presence of grizzly bears. Yellow journalism notwithstanding, there is a better, more peaceful way forward Towards a Kinder, Less Fearful Relationship with Grizzlies 60 Minutes missed a golden opportunity to explore what meaningful recovery of grizzly bears in this country could look like if we humbled ourselves and showed more compassion. The fact is that we can coexist with many more grizzlies than currently live in the Northern Rockies and, in the process, ensure that grizzly bears will survive the ravages of climate change to enrich the lives of future generations. We literally hold the fate of the grizzly in our hands. We get to choose a risky path or a safer one ? not just for the Great Bear but for all of us on this beleaguered planet. Surprisingly to some, Romania is on a more promising trajectory in its relationship with brown bears (same species as our grizzly) and provides a model we can learn from. There, more than 7000 brown bears live cheek by jowl with a human population as dense as that of Appalachia. Romanians have coexisted with brown bears for thousands of years ? not unlike Native Americans at mid-latitudes of North America who, prior to European colonization, lived in the midst of perhaps 70,000 grizzlies. To all ancient cultures throughout the Northern Hemisphere, grizzlies were viewed as relatives, mentors, healers and guides ? not monsters. Indeed, the grizzly was so revered that in some cultures its name could not be spoken out loud. Our ancient ancestors? understanding of bears as kin has been reinforced by modern science that shows how alike we are to all animals?with similar brains and feelings. When it comes to bears, we likely share aspects of consciousness and cognition. Few could watch a mother grizzly nursing, playing, or defending her cubs from intruders without concluding that we are not so different after all. Unfortunately, shows like 60 Minutes hearken back to our darker brutal past, not a brighter future for us or the creatures we share the planet with. More than ever, we need journalists to step up on behalf of the broader public interest, not greedy advertisers, exploiters of the land, or those seeking the thrill of killing a grizzly to mount a head on the wall. Louisa Willcox is a longtime grizzly bear activist and founder of Grizzly Times . She lives in Montana. -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Fri Oct 30 14:29:43 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2020 07:29:43 -0700 Subject: [Peace] Fwd: [New post] Divided Against Each Other And United For The Machine: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix References: <139971992.9061.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: > > New post on Caitlin Johnstone > > > Divided Against Each Other And United For The Machine: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative?Matrix by Caitlin Johnstone > If your ideology requires slow incremental change while humanity hurtles toward extinction, you don't have an ideology. You have a pastime while waiting for armageddon. > > ~ > > The Corbyn antisemitism psyop was exceptional in that it wasn't just the political/media class knowingly promoting a lie, but members of the rank-and-file public as well. Countless Brits knew it was a lie, but they helped sell it anyway because they didn't like his politics. > > ~ > > You won't stop fascism by electing Joe Biden, you'll just make sure it uses racially sensitive language while stomping on your face. > > ~ > > Yeah, vote Biden or else the government which destroys any nation that disobeys it might start sliding into tyranny. > > ~ > > It should not be a big deal to talk about Biden being corrupt. His entire career is made up of decisions that would only be made by someone who serves the interests of corporations, banks and war profiteers. You don't do that because of your moral compass, you do it for funding. > > And I mean sure the type of corruption I'm talking about here may be "legal", but that just means corruption is legal in America . That's not an argument that Joe Biden is not corrupt, it's just something that urgently needs to change. > > ~ > > US presidential elections are often very close because the US populace is deliberately kept evenly split between two ideological camps with a lot of emotional hostility and very little policy difference, ensuring they're kept divided against each other and united for the machine. > > ~ > > If you prioritize facts over narrative, America from 2016-2020 looks like the same imperialist and neoliberal agendas being rolled out in pretty much all the same ways as before, just with a really shrill mass media soundtrack playing in the background. > > ~ > > It's not that you can't beat the machine, it's that you can't beat the machine using the tools the machine has offered you. > > ~ > > It's so cute how many Americans think separating families at the border is the most evil thing their government does. > > ~ > > Without extensive marketing it would never occur to you that Mountain Dew is something you should put inside your body or that endless war is something you should accept as normal. > > ~ > > In days past leaders used to brutally slaughter their enemies in front of everyone and wear their body parts in case anyone got any funny ideas. Nowadays our leaders wear suits and ties, and they talk about freedom and democracy and family values, and they kill way more people. > > ~ > > People have been manipulating each other since the invention of language and manipulating each other at mass scale since the invention of government. All that's changed is the mass scale has gotten much larger and the manipulation much more sophisticated. > > ~ > > Sociopaths know that hell is just a religious propaganda construct because they understand how narrative manipulation works. That's why they can create mass atrocities like Yemen and still sleep like babies. > > ~ > > Yemen is like that elderly loved one you know you should see a lot more but you let them wither away in a nursing home out of sight and out of mind instead. > > ~ > > To oppose western interventionism is to put yourself in the uniquely absurd position of being branded an extremist lunatic and an intelligence agent for objecting to something that is literally always disastrous. > > ~ > > I have never gotten used to being called a Kremlin troll or a CCP propagandist. It has always shocked and disgusted me when people do that. It has never been sane or normal to accuse strangers of covertly working for foreign governments; the age of Maddow has caused people to mistakenly believe this is a sane and normal thing to do, but it has always been crazy and obnoxious. > > ~ > > People who think US aggressions with China are going to de-escalate after Biden wins are in for a rude awakening. > > Ah who am I kidding they'll sleep through the whole goddamn thing. > > ~ > > In nations like China the government uses propaganda and censorship, which makes them bad. In the west our governments are strictly ornamental and the plutocrats and spies who run things do the propagandizing and censoring, which is obviously far more civilized. > > In China you'll never see media that is critical of Chinese power structures, whereas in the west you might maybe see a criticism of western imperialism if you can get past the total marginalization of anti-imperialist voices and carefully constructed ideological echo chambers. > > I guess what I'm trying to say is that in nations like China they propagandize and censor their citizenry, whereas in free western democracies they propagandize and censor their citizenry while telling them how free and democratic they are. > > ~ > > The best way to manufacture consent for world-threatening cold war escalations is to convince half the population that a leader they hate opposes those escalations for corrupt reasons. This gives one half of the political spectrum a literally insatiable appetite for more and more escalations, and gives the other half a vested interest in proving that their guy is "tough" on the nation in question. Russiagate was extremely successful, so why change the formula? > > No sane person would consent to their nation's resources and wealth going toward a conflict that could wipe out every terrestrial organism instead of toward the citizenry, so propaganda is necessary. Russiagate was arguably the most successful psyop in history. It's just the formula to use now. > > ___________________ > > Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following my antics on Twitter , throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of my sweet merchandise , buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I?m trying to do with this platform, click here . Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I?ve written) in any way they like free of charge. > > > Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 > > #trump , #biden , #china , #corbyn , #narrative-matrix , #politics , #yemen > Caitlin Johnstone | October 30, 2020 at 2:11 am | Tags: #Trump , biden , china , corbyn , narrative matrix , Politics , Yemen | Categories: Article | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-2m9 > Comment See all comments > Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Caitlin Johnstone. > Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions . > > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/10/30/divided-against-each-other-and-united-for-the-machine-notes-from-the-edge-of-the-narrative-matrix/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Fri Oct 30 15:59:54 2020 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2020 11:59:54 -0400 Subject: [Peace] at MoveOn - Joe Biden: Tap Chris Murphy for Secretary of State In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Before anyone tries to school me about the Latebreaking News that Chris Murphy is not, in fact, Jesus Christ the Savior, remember this: the point of this campaign is to try to stop AIPAC from cramming Chris "Inevitable" Coons down our throats. @JoeBiden: If you win, tap @ChrisMurphyCT at State to End Yemen War, Restore Iran Deal https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/joebiden-please-ask-chrismurphyct-to-be-your-secretary-of-state -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From naiman at justforeignpolicy.org Fri Oct 30 20:05:11 2020 From: naiman at justforeignpolicy.org (Robert Naiman) Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2020 16:05:11 -0400 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?b?TXVzdCBXZSBfUmVhbGx5XyDigJxTdWNrIGl0IFVw4oCd?= =?utf-8?b?IGZvciBDaHJpcyDigJxJbmV2aXRhYmxl4oCdIENvb25zIHRvIOKAnEFw?= =?utf-8?q?pease_the_Donors=E2=80=9D=3F?= In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: Must We _*Really*_ ?Suck it Up? for Chris ?Inevitable? Coons to ?Appease the Donors?? Yesterday I thought it would be a useful analogy to compare how AIPAC is trying to cram Chris ?Inevitable? Coons down our throats as Secretary of State in a Biden Administration to how AIPAC crammed Hillary ?Inevitable? Clinton as Secretary of State down our throats in January 2009 - even after we defeated her in the primary, precisely to keep her away from U.S. policy in the Middle East. Elections matter. Except when they don?t. But it backfired. It was A Bridge Too Far. Even my ?friend? Comrade Brunsky - he was the ?best man? at my wedding, so I guess I can call him my ?friend? - turned against me. _*Et tu, Brune?*_ Even my ?friend? Comrade Brunsky, whose own mother left Germany on a _ *Kindertransport*_, whose own mother liked to refer to AIPAC apologists as ?the Jewish Mafia? when they used ?Reign of Terror? intimidation tactics to try to silence critics of Israel - may her memory be a blessing - turned against me. Even my ?friend? Comrade Brunsky, who grew up thinking that everybody has two grandparents, because that?s how many he had - turned against me. Up until that point, my ?friend? Comrade Brunsky had been broadly sympathetic to my campaign to block AIPAC from cramming Chris ?Inevitable? Coons down our throats as Biden?s Secretary of State. But when I compared it to AIPAC cramming Hillary down our throats as Secretary of State in January 2009, that was A Bridge Too Far. ?Oh, c?mon,? Comrade Brunsky reproached me. ?You can?t blame Obama for that. He had to Appease The Donors.? The question, dear Watson, is not WHETHER we have to Appease The Donors. Nobody disputes that we have to Appease The Donors. Everybody accepts that we have to Appease The Donors. Who among us expects to have as much say in the foreign policy of the United States as Haim Saban, Todd Richman, and Mark Mellman? Do we have delusions of grandeur? Nobody among us expects to have as much say in the foreign policy of the United States as they do. The question is HOW MUCH we have to Appease The Donors. Exactly how far does their ?turf? extend? What exactly are their ?internationally-recognized borders?? Do their borders extend from the Meuse to the Naiman river, from the Adige to the Belt? Will they be content with the Sudetenland, or do they need all of Czechoslovakia? Does only one side of the Jordan belong to them, or also the other? Will they be content with the south bank of the Litani, or do they need to go all the way to Beirut? Will they be content with the Golan Heights, or do they also need all of the West Bank to make them feel warm and cozy? How will we know when the donors have been sufficiently appeased? Is there some point at which they will stop asking for things and leave us alone? If they ask for something, does that prove that they need it? Is it possible that they sometimes ask for things that they don?t need? How would we know that, if we never push back? Is there any harm in trying to push back occasionally, just to check to make sure that it?s something that they really need? Did they really need Hillary as Secretary of State in January 2009? It didn?t stop the Iran deal. It only delayed it until Hillary was replaced by John Kerry, who negotiated the deal. Would it be so terrible now to try to have someone more like John Kerry right away, so we can end the Yemen war and restore the Iran deal and stop the Israeli annexation of the West Bank and stop treating U.S. weapons exports like potatoes, instead of having a Hillary first? Suppose that we only have finite time left here in Middle Earth, before we sail off to Elvenhome to lick our wounds. Suppose that we only have four things left on our Bucket List, four things left that we want to accomplish in Middle Earth before we sail off to Elvenhome: end the Yemen war, restore the Iran deal, stop the Israeli annexation of the West Bank, stop treating U.S. weapons exports like potatoes. Would it be so terrible to try to have more of a John Kerry-like figure, someone who has some track record as a war skeptic and vigorous diplomacy advocate, to supervise these four tasks, rather than someone imposed by AIPAC like Chris ?Inevitable? Coons, who voted for the Yemen war and helped AIPAC undermine the Iran deal? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: From karenaram at hotmail.com Sat Oct 31 00:18:51 2020 From: karenaram at hotmail.com (Karen Aram) Date: Fri, 30 Oct 2020 17:18:51 -0700 Subject: [Peace] =?utf-8?q?Fwd=3A_=5BNew_post=5D_Greenwald=E2=80=99s_Inte?= =?utf-8?q?rcept_Resignation_Exposes_The_Rot_In_All_Mass_Media?= References: <139971992.9081.0@wordpress.com> Message-ID: > > New post on Caitlin Johnstone > > > Greenwald?s Intercept Resignation Exposes The Rot In All Mass?Media by Caitlin Johnstone > Journalist Glenn Greenwald has made major waves throughout mainstream and alternative media by resigning from?The Intercept , an outlet he co-founded 2014 with the stated mission of holding power to account with the power of unrestricted journalism. > > Greenwald says he resigned because Intercept editors refused to let him publish an article he'd been working on about the mass media's role in covering up the Hunter Biden October surprise and obfuscating its nature, which he says is a violation of the conditions in his contract for editorial freedom. He also published part of the email exchanges he'd been having with the editors in the lead-up to submitting his notice of resignation. > > My Resignation From The Intercept > > The same trends of repression, censorship and ideological homogeneity plaguing the national press generally have engulfed the media outlet I co-founded, culminating in censorship of my own articles.https://t.co/dZrlYGfEBf > ? Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 29, 2020 > The email exchanges make it fairly clear that Intercept editors were holding Greenwald's analysis of the allegations against Joe Biden and his family to a much higher evidentiary standard than they hold any journalist who wants to criticize Trump or promote flimsy Russia conspiracy theories on the platform, and generally creating pressure and inertia to remove anything in the article that might hurt Biden's election chances. Journalist Matt Taibbi has his own article out on Greenwald's resignation which contains more information on the email exchanges, and which is very much worth reading. > > More revealing than the emails is the information which Greenwald shares in his Substack article about his resignation, saying The Intercept has been deliberately opaque about those who were responsible for the Reality Winner debacle and the actions they took which led to her arrest when leaking NSA documents to the outlet. Greenwald claims editors rushed the publication of the leaks "because they was eager to prove to mainstream media outlets and prominent liberals that The Intercept was willing to get on board the Russiagate train," and says their silence has allowed the blame to fall on him for Winner's imprisonment despite his having nothing to do with the ordeal. > > Greenwald also reveals that The Intercept refused to report on the daily proceedings of the Julian Assange extradition hearing "because the freelance reporter doing an outstanding job was politically distasteful". It's unclear exactly what was meant by this; Greenwald has praised the excellent Assange trial coverage by Shadowproof's Kevin Gosztola and Richard Medhurst now of Press TV in the past, both of whom say they don't at this time know who he was referring to. Regardless of what he meant, refusal of a media outlet whose motto is "Fearless, adversarial journalism" to cover the single most important journalistic freedom case in the world is outrageous on its face. > > I always wondered why @theintercept didn?t cover #Assange . pic.twitter.com/YNTWe4gB6G > ? Richard Medhurst (@richimedhurst) October 29, 2020 > The Intercept editors called Greenwald's criticisms "a grown person throwing a tantrum" in a remarkably snarky statement on their website, claiming on what appears to be no basis that their co-founder was "attempting to recycle the dubious claims of a political campaign ? the Trump campaign." > > "We have the greatest respect for the journalist Glenn Greenwald used to be, and we remain proud of much of the work we did with him over the past six years," the editors wrote. "It is Glenn who has strayed from his original journalistic roots, not The Intercept." > > These accusations are fully in line with the smears you can read from the blue-checkmarked commentariat by typing in Greenwald's name into the Twitter search bar on every given day. Establishment spinmeisters have been painting Greenwald as a closet Trump supporter who stumbled his way into useful idiocy for the Kremlin ever since the award-winning journalist began questioning the establishment Russia narrative, and this statement is plainly both informed by and designed to appeal to acolytes of that smear campaign. > > Contrary to its claims of adhering to its "journalistic roots", The Intercept has in fact been going down the tubes for as long as I've been at this commentary gig. Its coverage on Syria has been blatant security state stenography , it's published hit pieces on Assange , its sources keep getting arrested , and it has been promoting Russiagate with all the fervor of any garden variety corporate liberal rag . So the fact that it has joined with the freakishly unified narrative management campaign on the Hunter Biden story, and is now citing unsubstantiated assertions by US spooks to do so, is not terribly surprising. > > When intel officials decried the recent Post story, they wrote, "We do not have evidence of Russian involvement." The recent Intercept story quoting the letter left out that line. > > ?The CIA letter was more honest than The Intercept,? Greenwald notes. https://t.co/9i43bgwKds > ? Matt Taibbi (@mtaibbi) October 30, 2020 > The Intercept has fallen victim to the same decay as all other outlets past a certain size and funding level. Matt Taibbi, who says he's spoken to "multiple well-known journalists" who are encountering similar pressures as those Greenwald encountered in the lead-up to the US election, wrote the following in his aforementioned article : > > The traditional method of controlling the press ? as described by legendary independent journalists like I.F. Stone ? was the quiet aside by the boss, ?a little private talk ,? where a ?hint that the reporter seems irresponsible, a little bit radical? would be dropped. Getting the message, and fearing for his or her job, the reporter backs off. Or, in cases like the Iraq war runup, the strategic dismissal or un-hiring of a big name with the wrong views ? Phil Donahue ,?Jesse Ventura ? makes sure the rest of the employees get the message. > > > Greenwald co-founded the Intercept with this exact scenario in mind, building a structure where ?little private talks? with bosses would never happen, and there couldn?t be high-profile dismissals for ideological reasons. > > > What he didn?t guess at was that even in an atmosphere where managerial interference is near zero, a collective of independent journalists can themselves become censors and enforcers of official orthodoxies. In some cases, journalists will become more aggressive propagandists and suppressors of speech than the officials from whom they supposedly need to be protected. This is what happened with The Intercept. > > I really enjoyed my 3-hour discussion yesterday with @joerogan -- a wide range of issues: media censorship in general & on Biden, free speech erosions, surveillance & privacy, what responsibilities come with a public platform, just raw & honest discourse:https://t.co/X6gIDwVkcz > ? Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) October 28, 2020 > People will cite all sorts of reasons for The Intercept running cover for intelligence agencies and powerful politicians, including its Omidyar funding and the possibility of government infiltration. But I think the primary source of the decay of The Intercept is much more basic: having large, well-funded news media outlets simply is not conducive to good reporting. > > Powerful people pour so very much energy into manipulating how the masses think, act and vote, and news reporters are constantly interfacing with that severely polluted stream of information. For this reason the most heavily propagandized people in the world are those who are responsible for distributing propaganda, namely the news media. As the final guardians of society's incredible shrinking Overton window , reporters are necessarily the group who will be most aggressively pushed within that window. > > If as Upton Sinclair says it is difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends on his not understanding it, then surely that is especially true of those who've spent their working lives learning what frameworks of understanding help them ascend to prominence in the sphere of journalism. This would have shaped them long before they arrived at any outlet which purports to promote "fearless adversarial journalism", and it would continue shaping them as they interact with fellow journalists. > > This combined with a dominant plutocrat-funded media system designed to streamline journalistic thought into mainstream establishment orthodoxies creates a kind of conformity conveyor belt that journos get processed through like the schoolchildren in the video for Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall". > > > > The dominant worldview in any collective of journalists is statistically likely to be a mainstream worldview, simply because it's more common by its very nature. Mainstream worldviews are only mainstream because vast amounts of wealth and effort went into shoving them into the mainstream by sheer force for the benefit of the rich and powerful, whose kingdoms are built upon the capitalist imperialist status quo. If you set out to just hire a bunch of journalists who seem good to you, you're necessarily going to get a lot of people unwittingly promoting the interests of the rich and powerful just by sheer statistical probability. > > When you take all these factors together and throw them into a large media outlet full of journalists, our primitive impulses to conform with the pack kick in and the consensus worldview has a much easier time overtaking critical thought even further than it already has. > > Additionally, when you gather news reporters together in a large outlet you're going to attract the attention of powerful forces who have a vested interest in controlling how the news is reported. If you can use your leverage and/or resources to manipulate how that entire outlet reports, then that's energy well spent. > > All this to say, decentralization is going to have to be the way forward for good critical journalism. There are so few reporters who haven't been digested by the conformity conveyor belt, and if you stick them with the groupthink herd they're going to be squeezed until they either fall in line or leave. Stop trying to throw the few alive ones in with the zombies and let them go out on their own or in small groups; they'll be much harder to influence and they can do a lot more damage to the lie factory. > > I don't know if the best way to make a living doing that is with paid Substack submissions like Greenwald and Taibbi or more like my own Patreon-based model, or with some other approach we haven't thought of yet. I just know that every time we cluster up in groups we bog ourselves down and make ourselves an easy target for the machine. It's clear with the decay of The Intercept that we're better off finding ways to let our own skills and insight guide us down our own paths toward this journalism thing while the conformity drones rot in their well-funded outlets. The audiences will be there. Truth is attractive to people, serving power is not. > > I don't know that the Hunter Biden October surprise shows anything more scandalous than you'd expect for any major US presidential nominee. I do know that the uniform conspiracy of silence and obfuscation from the mass media about it is uniquely scandalous and says bad things about the future of journalism in western news media. We can't keep doing things the way we've been doing them. Drastic changes are desperately needed. > ________________________________ > > Thanks for reading! The best way to get around the internet censors and make sure you see the stuff I publish is to subscribe to the mailing list for at my website or on Substack , which will get you an email notification for everything I publish. My work is entirely reader-supported , so if you enjoyed this piece please consider sharing it around, liking me on Facebook , following my antics on Twitter , throwing some money into my tip jar on Patreon or Paypal , purchasing some of my sweet merchandise , buying my books Rogue Nation: Psychonautical Adventures With Caitlin Johnstone and Woke: A Field Guide for Utopia Preppers . For more info on who I am, where I stand, and what I?m trying to do with this platform, click here . Everyone, racist platforms excluded, has my permission to republish, use or translate any part of this work (or anything else I?ve written) in any way they like free of charge. > > > Bitcoin donations:1Ac7PCQXoQoLA9Sh8fhAgiU3PHA2EX5Zm2 > > #censorship , #glenn-greenwald , #media , #propaganda , #the-intercept > Caitlin Johnstone | October 30, 2020 at 3:32 pm | Tags: censorship , Glenn Greenwald , media , propaganda , the intercept | Categories: Article , News | URL: https://wp.me/p9tj6M-2mt > Comment See all comments > Unsubscribe to no longer receive posts from Caitlin Johnstone. > Change your email settings at Manage Subscriptions . > > Trouble clicking? Copy and paste this URL into your browser: > https://caitlinjohnstone.com/2020/10/30/greenwalds-intercept-resignation-exposes-the-rot-in-all-mass-media/ > -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: