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Please note: Newer drafts are being written daily. Please see:
At: https://www.silkroadvirtualuniversity.org/publications-by-gcb.html
For the most recent and complete drafts.
SUMMARY
Ukraine is an ancient and unique nation. It deserves recognition by other states, self-determination, and security. At the same time, President Biden’s statement released by the White House on 2022.02.23 calling Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine “unprovoked,” was a bold-faced lie and he knew it. American and NATO expansion east after the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall, in violation of a long list of agreements, was an extreme provocation. “Declassified documents show security assurances against NATO expansion to Soviet leaders from Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner.” The American funded and orchestrated mass demonstrations (so-called “color revolution”) in Kiev, known as “Maidan protests,” began in late 2013, were extreme provocations. Those protests played upon the “Harsh and politically unpopular austerity measures,” conditions of an EU loan that made it impossible for then President Viktor Yanukovich to accept, so he accepted a more amenable loan from Russia instead. The US got revenge: Yanukovich was thrown out of power by an American financed color revolution and Ukraine put on the butcher’s block. American backed President Zelensky’s endless pandering to DC and loading his nation with American military, neo-Nazi paramilitary, conventional and even potentially biological weapons has been extreme provocation, going so far as to represent a verifiable existential threat to the region and world. The fact that “More than 13,000 people were killed in breakaway states Donetsk and Luhansk between 2014 and 2020, according to the UN,” was extreme provocation. The US continued to accelerate the killing in Donbass until finally President Putin recognized the autonomy of those states, after years of refusing to do so, and shortly after went about securing their security in response to American backed rapid escalation of killing there. This entire sequence of events was orchestrated by the USA, and President Biden has proven himself again to be a liar and a fraud. Again? Please recall “When the (Iraq) war was debated and then authorized by the US Congress in 2002, Democrats controlled the Senate and Biden was chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.” This is twice now Joseph Biden has played a critical role in starting unjustifiable wars. As the world economy was and is struggling mightily to overcome the human and economic devastation caused by COVID-19, President Biden intentionally provoked what can easily escalate into a world war at any time, knowing full well the world economy is dependent on Russian energy resources. Author Akash Maurya notes Germany imports a third of its oil and more than half of its gas from Russia. The United States economy cannot function without the world economy, and President Bident has violated his oath of office to protect the US against all enemies, give that he has proven himself to be the greatest threat to American (and world) security in US history.
This isn’t Fischer vs. Spassky, but an entirely different, and deadlier game.
INTRODUCTION
March 7, 2022 Few among the wise would argue against the suggestion to take a moment to reflect on the nature of our actions and probable consequences of those actions.
Simultaneously to try to reason with a mob is most certainly unwise. Mobs don’t listen, read or think beyond their own passion and collective-ego driven base desires.
Nevertheless, some questions must be asked, and some facts checked en-route to what appears to be the great abyss into which civilization, as we now know it, appears to be rapidly sliding.
On one hand anyone can see the mass and momentum of American military aggression is apparently unstoppable, on the other hand to not try to at least deflect it would be recklessly irresponsible.
Ukraine is an ancient and unique nation. It deserves recognition by other states, self-determination, and security. Tragically however, its leadership has allowed it to be cynically used by the American intelligence apparatus as a launch pad for another profit-driven war. Had that Ukrainian leadership exhibited the moral courage to say “No!” to the US, this war would not now be occurring.
Ultimately, President Putin will be judged by 1) how precisely his military forces can target the military and paramilitary forces that have ruthlessly – and in violation of international law – been inserted into the Ukraine by the USA – and have caused a death toll exceeding 13,000 in Donbass, 2) how humanely his forces can deal with and protect civilians and 3) how quickly he can accomplish his goals, and leave.
Thursday February 24: 1) Was it the beginning of a war, or 2) the beginning of the end of a war? Alternatively, it could have been 3) just another turning point in an ongoing US/NATO driven war that will ultimately result in WWIII.
In any case, it is a US/NATO profit-driven war and the innocent people in Ukraine are now paying the price. This conflict really began with the American financed overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically elected President Viktor Yanukovich by way a classic American Color Revolution started in 2013/2014.
This is much the same as what happened in most of the “Arab Spring” revolutions. This is different however because 1) Ukrainians are white, and 2) building up Euro-American-backed military bases, and military and paramilitary forces on Russia’s border was and remains a highly provocative move by the USA, and in violation of the spirit of agreements that NATO would not move east after the deconstruction of the Berlin Wall.
Declassified documents show security assurances against NATO expansion to Soviet leaders from Baker, Bush, Genscher, Kohl, Gates, Mitterrand, Thatcher, Hurd, Major, and Woerner
The above referenced treasure-trove of documents belies what one will find doing an ordinary Google search. Google is currently aiding and abetting the US intelligence apparatus by redacting those documents from most of its searches. How long the above site and linked references will remain intact is anybody’s guess.
Because of American repeated belligerent violations of trust and formal agreements, and the weakness of the Ukrainian leadership after the American backed coup, there is now a war in Ukraine.
The responsibilities of a journalist
The burden of responsibility upon a journalist to ascertain the facts is far higher than that of a historian or forensic pathologist because multiple sources, including first person eye witness experiences are usually needed to add credibility to a story. This writer had the mixed blessing of visiting one of the first Taliban training madrassas near Islamabad in Pakistan at the beginning of that movement in November 1993.
I also interviewed refugees from the war in Sri Lanka in November 1995 in Colombo and reporters that witnessed the arrest of American so-called “NGO” workers that were bringing weapons (e.g., bomb timing devices) and money for the LTTE terrorist group during that war. And thus, I have some first-hand experience with how the American intelligence apparatus creates terrorist groups, prior to flying in to the “rescue” of the poor victims of the terrorists they themselves created, while in the process creating more victims and outrage via “collateral damage.”
The case of the current Ukraine War is no different from Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Iraq, and tragically American news consumers have learned nothing from repeated experiences with the American intelligence apparatus starting unjust wars using false or at minimum highly truncated and misleading information.
Once again, the US created and inserted terrorist groups, this time in the form of ultra-nationalists and neo-Nazi militias, and launched them upon innocents – this time in Donbass, southeastern Ukraine. Once again, the US produces “absolute proof” of the dastardly “pure evil” of anyone who attempts to defend themselves from the aggression the US created.
I have to give the American intelligence apparatus credit for getting away with it again. It’s darned clever, so much like a brilliant Hollywood production, and thus far, early in the war, successful.
Following and amplifying a longstanding trend, the American intelligence apparatus has so discredited humanitarian interventions, no one will believe launching a real humanitarian intervention is even possible, and thus now hate, truly hate President Putin for his humanitarian intervention in Donbass. The US keeps claiming “just war,” when its wars are profoundly unjust, and when someone actually does promote a real humanitarian intervention, nobody believes it is even possible.
It is like the boy who falsely cried “Wolf” so many times, nobody believes there are wolves anywhere, anymore.
There are however a vast number of rather obvious flaws in the operational procedures of the American intelligence community’s war in Ukraine. For example, the US plans to keep its hands “clean” by hiring mercenaries to do their dirty work. This might seem clever; however, it is also possible President Putin could simply buy them all right out from under the US’s thumb, possibly out of his own pocket. That is just one of many problems with mercenary armies. In any event, it is probably far cheaper to simply shoot or bomb them.
Furthermore, the EU had a “brilliant” plan to send fighter jets to the Ukraine sans pilots, hoping Ukrainians would pilot them. Everyone however knows climbing into the sky with an EU fighter jet against Russia in Russia’s backyard would be suicide, and the whole plan fell apart. https://www.politico.com/news/2022/02/28/ukrainian-pilots-arrive-in-poland-to-pick-up-donated-fighter-jets-00012560
Basically, this whole profit-motivated get-rich-quick scheme by President Biden’s war-profiteering cronies has more holes than Swiss cheese, and the innocents in Ukraine, and Russian soldiers dying on the battlefields are paying the price.
When will western tax payers and voters realize the United States created this war (like all the rest since WWII) with the intention of losing militarily, while hugely profiting financially from war industries?
Take the Afghan War for example. American tax payers paid some three trillion dollars for that war, but the weapons and related military supply industries profited some eight trillion dollars. Financially, rich American capitalists won that war; the same in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Somalia, and so on. War is a net profit business and militarily winning or losing is irrelevant. The human suffering and victims are utterly irrelevant and now the innocent people of Ukraine are on the butcher’s block and nobody, repeat nobody in the western world has the courage to stand up and assert news consumers and tax payers have been tricked, again. Now, Facebook allows praising neo-Nazis to the heavens, only if they fight Russians.
How western news media consumers can keep falling for the same old trick is simply beyond my comprehension, and it would be so easy to simply “wash my hands” of it and sit on the sidelines pretending I don’t know and/or don’t care. Unfortunately for me personally, I take the responsibility of having a moral conscience as a supraordinate one, surpassing even common sense sometimes, and thus file this account.
The legality of President Putin’s armed intervention in Ukraine
The ICRC’s position on “humanitarian intervention” by Anne Ryniker
The legal status of “humanitarian intervention” and its relationship to international humanitarian law “Humanitarian intervention” is a jus ad bellum question. When does a State or a group of States have the right to resort to force? This question is dealt with explicitly by the UN Charter. In principle, States are to refrain from the use of force in their international relations (Article 2 para. 4). Chapter VII sets out exceptions. In the event of a threat to international peace and security, the Security Council may take military action (Article 42).The Charter also guarantees the right to individual or collective self-defence (Article 51).The right to self-determination is another possible justification for intervention accepted in practice.
IRRC June 2001 Vol. 83 No 842 527 (This paper was prepared by the ICRC’s Legal Division to aid in internal discussions intended to clarify the organization’s position in this topical debate) https://www.icrc.org/en/doc/assets/files/other/527-532_ryniker-ang.pdf
The people of Donbass have a right to individual and collective self-defense (Article 51) and potentially outside assistance in securing self-determination, even if the General Assembly of the UN hypocritically chooses to not recognize that right.
Does life imitate art, or art, life?
I take no pleasure in inserting myself between a lynch mob and its intended victim, knowing all too well the probable outcome of such an action. And yet, when historical trends and a strong cluster of verifiable evidence sits on the sidelines strongly suggesting that doing nothing will bring about even more catastrophic results, I feel compelled to at least examine that evidence and share it with whoever has the courage to consider it.
In another metaphoric context, the defendant – Russian President Vladimir Putin - sits bound and gagged, as Russia’s primary conduit of communication with the world - RT News has been blocked in many or most nations of the world. Likewise Russian viewpoints have been scrubbed from YouTube and forbidden on Facebook. Meanwhile most of the inhabitants of the world sharpen their knives, poking and stabbing at President Putin in speech, writing and acerbic comics.
American and international laws regarding free speech? Artifacts of a bygone age. The towering giant of American ego has eradicated all notions of a free press and democracy, and punish severely those who dare to promote this obvious assertion.
In retrospect – with the 20-20 vision of hindsight – there will be recriminations. How did this happen? Who started this conflagration? And why?
The answers are pretty much all here in this paper, but due to the titanium walls of electronic censorship, virtually no one in western nations will read or hear them until its too late. And yet, to write nothing would be bowing in subservience to the insatiable predators in this morbid conflict, and such inaction goes against all of my moral beliefs and genetic predispositions. The USA has started, escalated, and then abandoned too many wars, leaving mountains of corpses and infinite anguish, sorrow and anger that can and never should be forgotten.
My primary motive in collecting the information in this article is so simple as to be nearly unbelievable: Protect life, and there have been, and continue to be times and places when and where strong action is necessary to protect life. Tragically this is, due to the infinite greed of western capitalists and their pet politicians, one of those times.
https://www.understandingwar.org/backgrounder/ukraine-conflict-updates
FACT CHECK QUESTIONS 1 – Who started the Ukraine War?
1. Is it true President Putin did not start the Ukraine War; it has been an American backed undeclared war going on since 2014? [Strong evidence for Yes.]
2. Is it true that: “More than 13,000 people were killed in the conflict between 2014 and 2020, according to the UN.” [Confirmed]
3. Given that #2 above is verifiable, why do most Americans not know this?
American government and private electronic filters (illegally) censor out viewpoints not in accordance with US foreign policy objectives. [Confirmed]
4. Given that #2 above is verifiable, is it possible that President Putin’s actions to disarm Ukraine were designed to stop a war, instead of start one? [Strong evidence for Yes.]
5. If the American public were given a popular referendum vote on the following questions, what would the results be?
Q. Do you support the US orchestrating, initiating, and funding a war in Ukraine against innocents in Donbass - for the sole purposes of a) generating money for shareholders in weapons and related war industry corporations, and b) distracting American’s attention from very real domestic problems, - given the current Ukraine War has the very real potential to start WWIII, and the obliteration of the entire USA (Ukraine and parts of Russia) in a thermonuclear war?
A. Yes, I support the US 8+ years of American efforts to start and escalate the war in Ukraine and possible thermonuclear war.
B. No, I do not support the US continuing to fund and orchestrate the 8+ year war in Ukraine and possible thermonuclear war.
[The answer to this question cannot be verified as survey results to fair questions have not yet, and probably never will emerge.]
6. Do you believe:
A. Less than 50% of Americans would vote to continue to fund and escalate that war?
B. About 50% would vote to continue to fund and escalate that war?
C. More than 50% would vote to continue to fund and escalate that war?
[The answer to this question cannot be verified as survey results to fair questions have not yet, and probably never will emerge.]
7. Do you believe it is possible if Donald Trump were reelected, he would have generated a pretext to start a war against China instead of Russia, as President Biden has done?
A. Yes
B. No
C. Maybe
[FACT CHECK: Probably yes, but not verifiable.]
The question remains, did President Biden trap President Putin, or has President Putin trapped President Biden? (Before trying to answer that “penultimate question,” please keep in mind that, as with most dichotomous choices there are third alternatives.)
In a recent article by Jeremy Kuzmarov published in Covert Action Magazine, he makes it appear President Putin isn’t doing that well in this contest of moral conviction.
2022.03.01 Repeating ’70s Strategy of Grand Chess-Master Brzezinski: Biden Appears to Have Induced Russian Invasion of Ukraine to Bankrupt Russia’s Economy and Advance Regime Change. By Jeremy Kuzmarov https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/03/01/repeating-70s-strategy-of-grand-chess-master-zbigniew-brzezinski-biden-administration-appears-to-have-induced-russian-invasion-of-ukraine-to-bankrupt-russias-economy-and-advance-regime-cha
Reviewing news of the past few weeks, things do look a bit dicey for Russia at the moment.
What appear to be President Biden’s advantages
The Euro-American corporate/political superstructure is coming out with “all guns blazing” to “get Putin.”
2022.03.06 Netflix suspends services in Russia https://www.rt.com/pop-culture/551381-netflix-russia-subscribers-ukraine
2022.03.05 Mastercard Statement on Suspension of Russian Operations https://www.mastercard.com/news/press/2022/march/mastercard-statement-on-suspension-of-russian-operations
2022.03.03 Senator Lindsey Graham has called for President Putin to be assassinated.
2022.03.02 - G7 and European Union governments on Saturday moved to block certain Russian banks' access to the SWIFT international payment system - but went one step further than many expected by paralyzing about half the Russian central bank's $630 billion worth of foreign currency and gold reserves. https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/russia-central-bank-freeze-may-hasten-peak-world-fx-reserves-mike-dolan
The US always steals money from the nations it targets, and spends money as if it has infinite money, while at the same time the US is deeply and profoundly in debt.
$2.5 Billion so-called U.S. “security assistance” committed to Ukraine since 2014 - In fact, that money was not used to promote security, but instead used to provoke the current war.
Fact Check: Confirmed The US does not have infinite money, although it spends money as if it did, and the US did commit $2.5 billion to support the illegitimate government the US installed after ousting the democratically elected president.
What appear to be Russia’s advantage
2022.03.04 - Freezing Moscow’s forex reserves may dethrone greenback, strategist says - - Credit Suisse strategist says US dollar has now reached critical inflection point - Cutting Russia off from accessing its foreign currency reserves may end the hegemony of the US dollar, according to Credit Suisse short-term interest rate strategist Zoltan Pozsar. https://thepressunited.com/updates/freezing-moscows-forex-reserves-may-dethrone-greenback-strategist-says (Italics added by this author.)
Mounting evidence of illegal US bioweapons research in Ukraine
2022.03.10 Do Ukrainian biolabs violate the ban on biological weapons programs? An explanation must be offered for what was really going on in Ukrainian laboratories working with highly dangerous pathogens, by Scott Ritter - a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer. He served in the Soviet Union as an inspector implementing the INF Treaty, in General Schwarzkopf’s staff during the Gulf War, and from 1991-1998 as a UN weapons inspector. // Unless either Ukraine or the US can prove otherwise, the available evidence points to Kiev operating biological laboratories which may have violated the Biological and Toxins Weapons Convention. / Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland appeared before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations on March 8, testifying on the US and international response to Russia’s attack on Ukraine. After delivering her opening remarks, the veteran US diplomat took questions from the committee members. / One question, asked by Senator Marco Rubio, a Republican from the state of Florida, stood out. “Does Ukraine have chemical or biological weapons?” he asked. / Nuland answered the question very deliberately. “Ukraine has biological research facilities which, in fact, we’re now quite concerned Russian troops, Russian forces may be seeking to gain control of, so we are working with the Ukrainians on how we can prevent any of those research materials from falling into the hands of Russian forces should they approach,” she said. / … / Rubio was right about one thing – the Russians were having a field day about the “biological research facilities” Nuland was so reticent about discussing. Maria Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, announced that “We [Russia] confirm that, during the special military operation in Ukraine, the Kiev regime was found to have been concealing traces of a military biological program implemented with funding from the United States Department of Defense.” / According to Zakharova, the Ukrainian Ministry of Health, on February 24 – the first day of the Russian offensive – had ordered all the Ukrainian biological laboratories to “urgently” eradicate the stored reserves of “highly hazardous pathogens of plague, anthrax, rabbit fever, cholera and other lethal diseases.” She said the documentation on the “urgent eradication” of the pathogens was “received from employees of Ukrainian laboratories.” / While noting that more work was being done by the Russian Ministry of Defense to fully assess the documents in question, Zakharova said Russia was able to conclude “that components of biological weapons were being developed in Ukrainian laboratories in direct proximity to Russian territory.” / “The urgent eradication of highly hazardous pathogens on February 24 was ordered to prevent exposing a violation of Article I of the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) by Ukraine and the United States,” she added. / There is suspicion, however, that the Defense Threat Reduction Agency-led biological programs may have a more nefarious purpose. The Bulgarian investigative journalist, Dilyana Gaytandzhieva, has conducted extensive research into this issue. “The US Army regularly produces deadly viruses, bacteria and toxins in direct violation of the UN Convention on the prohibition of Biological Weapons. Hundreds of thousands of unwitting people are systematically exposed to dangerous pathogens and other incurable diseases. Bio-warfare scientists using diplomatic cover test man-made viruses at Pentagon bio laboratories in 25 countries across the world,” she claimed. / Gaytandzhieva’s work has been dismissed by the US as ‘pro-Russian propaganda.’ But the inescapable fact is that the US does not have a clean record when it comes to compliance with the BTWC. So-called “bio-defense” has been used by the US to circumvent, if not outright violate, the provisions of the BTWC in the past. The most flagrant example of this was the CIA-led “Project Clear Vision,” which from 1997 until 2000 sought to reverse-engineer and subsequently test a Soviet-era “bomblet” designed to disperse biological agents, including anthrax. There was a debate within the Clinton administration as to whether “Clear Vision” violated the BTWC, which led to the program being halted in 2000. / … / While Pope had been painting a relatively benign picture of the types of pathogens stored at the facilities he supervised, he left a clue about the potential for something far more worrisome. While noting that many of the biolabs in Ukraine were of new construction, “others date back to the Soviet-era and the country’s bioweapons program.” Some of these older laboratories, Pope said, could hold pathogen strains dating back to the Soviet biowarfare programs. “Scientists being scientists, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of these strain collections in some of these laboratories still have pathogen strains that go all the way back to the origins of that program.” / If this is the case, then the Ukrainian labs could very well be the repository of Anthrax 836, an extremely deadly strain of that disease specifically developed to be delivered in warheads mounted on SS-18 intercontinental ballistic missiles operating from Ukraine. / If Marco Rubio had been doing his job, instead of promoting anti-Russian propaganda, he could have – indeed, should have – held Victoria Nuland’s feet to the fire regarding what was really going on at the biological labs in Ukraine. There might be an innocuous answer out there. But until it is provided, it appears that Russia did in Ukraine what the US was unable to in Iraq – launched an attack on a nation which was in possession of prohibited biological weapons. https://www.rt.com/news/551618-bioweapons-programs-us-ukraine Bold text added by this author.
Also see: US history of bioweapons attacks against it’s own people
Who fired the first shots?
2022.02.24 Eyewitness Reports Indicate Ukrainian Army Fired First Shots in War with Russia https://covertactionmagazine.com/2022/02/24/eyewitness-reports-indicate-ukrainian-army-fired-first-shots-in-war-with-russia
According to the most recent polls in Russia, the Ukraine War does not appear to upset most Russian people that much.
2022.02.17 - 5 Polls That Contextualize the Russia-Ukraine Crisis, by Mary Chesnut https://www.russiamatters.org/analysis/5-polls-contextualize-russia-ukraine-crisis
The US is spending itself silly over the Ukraine war, and the ranks of the poor in the US might not appreciate this.
2022.03.06 But Blinken, on NBC, insisted that while the US would continue to add to Ukraine with “security assistance” – totaling more than $1bn over the past year...https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/mar/06/antony-blinken-russia-sanctions-ukraine-invasion
Homelessness crises in the US
2022.01.07 With more than half a million Americans unhoused, the U.S. is still struggling to solve the homelessness crisis https://www.cnbc.com/2022/01/07/why-the-us-cant-solve-the-homelessness-crisis.html
Increasing police fatal shootings in the USA
2022.03.02 People shot to death by U.S. police 2017-2022, by race Published by Statista Research Department
Sadly, the trend of fatal police shootings in the United States seems to only be increasing, with a total 138 civilians having been shot, nine of whom were Black, as of March 2022. In 2021, there were 1,055 fatal police shootings, and in 2020 there were 1,021 fatal shootings. Additionally, the rate of fatal police shootings among Black Americans was much higher than that for any other ethnicity, standing at 38 fatal shootings per million of the population as of March 2022. https://www.statista.com/statistics/585152/people-shot-to-death-by-us-police-by-race/
The US government policy of spend, spend, spend is hurting the poor and everyone else. The national debt passed the 30 trillion-dollar mark recently and there is no end in sight.
Currently, the United States spends over $900 million per day on interest payments.
As more federal resources are diverted to interest payments, there will be less available to invest in areas that are important for economic growth... Reduced Private Investment. Federal borrowing competes for funds in the nation’s capital markets, thereby raising interest rates and crowding out new investment in business equipment and structures. Entrepreneurs face a higher cost of capital, potentially stifling innovation and slowing the advancement of new breakthroughs that could improve our lives. At some point, investors might begin to doubt the government’s ability to repay debt and could demand even higher interest rates — further raising the cost of borrowing for businesses and households... Fewer Economic Opportunities for Americans. Growing debt also has a direct effect on the economic opportunities available to every American. If high levels of debt crowd out private investments in capital goods, workers would have less to use in their jobs, which would translate to lower productivity and, therefore, lower wages.
https://www.pgpf.org/the-fiscal-and-economic-challenge/fiscal-and-economic-impact
2021.09.18 As the US defense budget inches closer to $800 billion, critics say more money doesn't buy what the military really needs by Christopher Woody
Despite recently closing hundreds of bases in Iraq and Afghanistan, the United States still maintains nearly 800 military bases in more than 70 countries and territories abroad—from giant “Little Americas” to small radar facilities. Britain, France and Russia, by contrast, have about 30 foreign bases combined.
https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2015/06/us-military-bases-around-the-world-119321/
What will the US government do when it can no longer pay its massive debts and its credit dries up?
The US economy is held together with magic and pixy dust, stabilized only by the dollar being the global international currency. What will happen now that the dollar is passing the inflection point and less than 50% of global financial transactions are done in dollars? What, in real terms, is the value of the dollar these days? The context of the global economy does not help the shaky position of the US dollar. And starting a war like this while still mired in a global pandemic? Unconscionable!
2021.12.27 Global financial markets brace for a bumpy ride in 2022 - Soaring inflation, rising interest rates and further supply chain disruption will fuel volatility, economists say - https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/dec/27/global-financial-markets-brace-for-a-bumpy-ride-in-2022
Stocks Poised for Bear Markets as Oil Soars: Markets Wrap - U.S. considers ban on imports of Russian oil due to invasion - Euro down as dollar rises; haven demand spurs Treasuries, gold
Europe’s Stoxx 600 dropped more than 3% on Monday, while U.S. equity index futures and Asian shares declined. Banks led losses as defense companies gained. Energy stocks surged in Europe and U.S. premarket trading, with Brent crude jumping as high as $139. European gas, palladium and copper hit all-time highs...
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-03-06/stocks-face-oil-risks-amid-talk-of-russia-embargo-markets-wrap?srnd=premium-asia (For the uninitiated among those reading this, a “bear market” is a bad thing, and the democrats are going to pay big-time for it in the November elections later this year.)
2022.03.07 What a ban on Russian oil may mean for an already chaotic market - Brent crude soared almost 18% to just shy of $140 a barrel at the open in Asia. By Elizabeth Low - Brent crude soared almost 18% to just shy of $140 a barrel at the open in Asia following news over the weekend that the US and its European allies are discussing a possible ban on Russian oil exports. / It’s the latest development in an eye-watering surge in prices since the invasion of Ukraine, which has thrown energy markets into disarray and has the world bracing for a major inflationary shock. Here’s what analysts are saying about the likely implications of a prohibition on Russian oil...
Cutting Russia off from SWIFT may have been the biggest financial error ever made by any politician in world economic history. That accelerates the fall of the US dollar as the international currency, and can all to easily result in the US dollar becoming close, or equal to worthless. Did President Putin know this would happen? It was obvious afterall.
Although at the moment it appears President Biden (a Democrat) fell into his own trap, it isn’t over till it’s over, and it isn’t over yet.
FACT CHECK QUESTIONS 2 – Could the US end this war and secure peace for Ukraine with a phone call?
Is the following true?
Writing for Politico, Charap suggested that the United States should help end the war in eastern Ukraine by using its leverage to persuade the Ukrainian government to fulfil its obligations under the 2015 Minsk II agreement, according to which Ukraine is meant to grant “special status” – i.e. political autonomy – to the rebel region of Donbass…
https://www.rt.com/russia/541563-western-media-russian-agent
Fact Check: Confirmed
FACT CHECK QUESTIONS 3 – Did the US really overthrow the democratically elected government in Ukraine (in addition to dozens of others)?
1. Is it true that: “Mass demonstrations in Kiev, which later became known as ‘Euromaidan’ or simply ‘Maidan protests,” began in late 2013, after then-President Viktor Yanukovich decided to delay the signing of an EU association “deal” (a loan with strings attached) that by itself could have toppled the government?
FACT CHECK: Confirmed
2. To what extent did American so-called “pro-democracy” government supported organizations like NED promote and encourage (pay the demonstrators at) those protests? A large extent and they don’t deny it. They’re proud of it.
2022.02.22 NED STANDS IN SOLIDARITY WITH UKRAINE
Fact Check: Confirmed
3. Is it true that “The initially peaceful protests were joined by hardliner nationalists and spiraled into violent riots in Kiev and takeovers of administrative buildings across Ukraine?”
So, for four years, Yanukovych toed a fine line. He pleased his base with symbolic and cultural measures, like talk of unity or cooperation with Moscow in key industries — even if much of it went nowhere — along with more serious steps like making Russian an official language, rejecting NATO membership, and reversing his pro-Western predecessor’s move to glorify Nazi collaborators as national heroes in school curricula.
https://jacobinmag.com/2022/02/maidan-protests-neo-nazis-russia-nato-crimea
Fact Check: Confirmed
4. Were those "hardliner nationalists” supported by American intelligence organizations? https://foreignpolicy.com/2014/03/04/no-contest
Fact Check: Confirmed
5. Do some of those “hardliner nationalist” groups largely overlap with American funded neo-Nazi groups?
2020.07.20 https://thegrayzone.com/2020/07/20/ukrainian-think-tank-neo-nazi-racist-violence/
2019.12.04 https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/04/ukrainian-nazis-hong-kong-protests
2019.11.23 https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/23/yes-ukraine-interference-in-the-2016-presidential-election/
2019.10.08 https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/08/us-arming-of-ukraine-is-a-scandal-on-its-own/
2019.09.23 https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/23/bomb-extremist-us-soldier-fbi-ukrainian-nazi-azov
2018.12.10 https://thegrayzone.com/2018/12/10/nato-ukraine-president-poroshenko-nazi-soldier-totenkopf/
2018.10.30 https://thegrayzone.com/2018/10/30/c14-ukrainian-nazi-kiev-police-america-house/
2018. 07.10 https://thegrayzone.com/2018/07/10/ukraine-embassy-israel-arming-nazis-max-blumenthal/
2018.07.09 https://thegrayzone.com/2018/07/09/yuri-biryukov-ukraine-president-adviser-heil-hitler-neo-nazi/
2018.02.05 https://thegrayzone.com/2018/02/05/max-blumenthal-us-is-arming-neo-nazis-in-ukraine/
2014.03.13 https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/revolutions-pretext-imperialism
Fact Check: Confirmed
6. Is it true that in February 2014, pro-Western factions overthrew (Ukrainian’s democratically elected) President Viktor Yanukovich’s government, and officials with a notable pro-EU and anti-Moscow stance came to power?
“Neo-Nazi groups, such as Right Sector and the Azov Battalion, who revere the World War II Ukrainian fascist leader Stepan Bandera, took part in the coup as well as in the ongoing war against Lugansk and Donetsk.”
https://consortiumnews.com/2022/02/24/what-putin-says-are-the-causes-aims-of-russias-military-action
Fact Check: Confirmed
7. Do the intelligence services of the USA, most notably the CIA have a long-established history of overthrowing foreign governments?
Overthrowing other people’s governments: The Master List by William Blum
“Instances of the United States overthrowing or attempting to overthrow a foreign government since the Second World War.”
(* indicates successful ouster of a government)
“China 1949 to early 1960s, Albania 1949-53, East Germany 1950s, Iran 1953*, Guatemala 1954*, Costa Rica mid-1950s, Syria 1956-7, Egypt 1957, Indonesia 1957-8, British Guiana 1953-64*, Iraq 1963*, North Vietnam 1945-73, Cambodia 1955-70*, Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960*, Ecuador 1960-63*, Congo 1960*, France 1965, Brazil 1962-64*, Dominican Republic 1963*, Cuba 1959 to present, Bolivia 1964*, Indonesia 1965*, Ghana 1966*, Chile 1964-73*, Greece 1967*, Costa Rica 1970-71, Bolivia 1971*, Australia 1973-75*, Angola 1975, 1980s, Zaire 1975, Portugal 1974-76*, Jamaica 1976-80*, Seychelles 1979-81, Chad 1981-82*, Grenada 1983*, South Yemen 1982-84, Suriname 1982-84, Fiji 1987*, Libya 1980s & 2011, Nicaragua 1981-90*, Panama 1989* Bulgaria 1990*, Albania 1991*, Iraq 1991, Afghanistan 1980s*, Somalia 1993, Yugoslavia 1999-2000*, Ecuador 2000*, Afghanistan 2001*, Venezuela 2002*, Iraq 2003*, Haiti 2004*, Somalia 2007 to present, Honduras 2009*, Libya 2011* to present, Syria 2012 to present, Ukraine 2014*”
https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list
To that list one must add:
Yemen 2014, Ukraine 2014*, Turkey 2016, Venezuela 2019, Bolivia 2019*, Iran 2017 to present, Nicaragua 2018, China 2018 to present, Cuba.
Palestine deserves to be on that list as it’s being rapidly and violently conquered by Israel on a day-by-day basis ever since the Nakba in 1948. One can assert Israel is the aggressor, however Israel is just a cat’s paw (along with Saudi Arabia, other Gulf States and Egypt) of the USA in its ambition to conquer the entire region.
Fact Check: Confirmed
8. The US instigating paramilitary deadly aggression within Ukraine against innocents in Donbass is illegal according to international law
https://www.icrc.org/en/war-and-law/ihl-other-legal-regmies/ihl-human-rights
Fact Check: Confirmed (Simultaneously, Russia’s humanitarian intervention in the Ukraine could be accepted as “international custom.”)
9. Is it true that: While the Maidan events received widespread support in western parts of Ukraine, the eastern and southern regions, which have a large Russian-speaking population and strong historic ties to Russia, came out strongly against the events in Kiev? Though not yet internationally recognized, Donbass is now adjacent to east Ukraine.
Fact Check: Confirmed
10. In cities such as Odessa, the anti-Maidan protests were soon violently suppressed. In the eastern Donetsk and Lugansk regions and the Black Sea autonomous republic of Crimea, pro-Russian protests persisted.
For a longer chronology, please refer to the primary source for the above questions:
https://www.rt.com/russia/550493-ukraine-donbass-military-operation-prehistory/
Though permitting the accused a voice in his own defense is highly irregular in American Cancel Culture and the American corporate controlled mainstream news industry, some niceties of civilization should not be relegated to the scrapheap of history prematurely especially when Mutually Assured Destruction via thermonuclear war seems like a realistic possibility. The long-standing Cold War has turned into a hot war with proxies only on the American side. The “bear” so-to-speak, has been bloodied, and this has the potential to become the greatest single military error of post-WWII history.
It was also, quite predictable.
FACT CHECK QUESTIONS 4 – Habits of key American players
Is the Biden family up to its eyebrows in corrupt business deals in Ukraine?
Fact Check: Confirmed
Was a Senator Joseph Biden instrumental in starting the Iraq War?
Joe Biden championed the Iraq war. Will that come back to haunt him now? By Mark Weisbrot
... Biden did vastly more than just vote for the war. Yet his role in bringing about that war remains mostly unknown or misunderstood by the public. When the war was debated and then authorized by the US Congress in 2002, Democrats controlled the Senate and Biden was chair of the Senate committee on foreign relations. Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/feb/17/joe-biden-role-iraq-war
Also see:
https://theintercept.com/2020/01/07/joe-biden-iraq-war-history/
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/12/us/politics/joe-biden-iraq-war.html
Fact Check: Confirmed
The current war in Ukraine did not appear out of nowhere. It was not and is not the sudden impulsive drive for power or territorial acquisition it has been painted to be, by the western mainstream media. Instead, it was planned a long time ago and implemented in stages by the intelligence apparatus of the USA.
As William Blum author of Killing Hope, U.S. and CIA Interventions since World War II noted:
“The main problem with the media today, as earlier, is what is left out of articles dealing with controversial issues. For example, the very common practice during the first Cold War of condemning the Soviet Union for taking over much of Eastern Europe after the Second World War. This takeover is certainly based on fact. But the condemnation is very much misapplied if no mention is made of the fact that Eastern Europe became communist because Hitler, with the approval of the West, used it as a highway to reach the Soviet Union to wipe out Bolshevism once and for all; the Russians in World Wars I and II lost about 40 million people because the West had twice used this highway to invade Russia. It should not be surprising that after World War II the Soviets were determined to close down the highway. It was not simply “communist expansion”. “Or the case of Moammar Gaddafi. In the Western media he is invariably referred to as “the Libyan dictator.” Period. And he certainly was a dictator. But he also did many marvelous things for the people of Libya (like the highest standard of living in Africa) and for the continent of Africa (like creating the African Union).”
https://williamblum.org/aer/read/155 [Permission to quote granted by William Blum via email March 15, 2018]
The key sentence above is the first sentence: “The main problem with the media today, as earlier, is what is left out of articles dealing with controversial issues.” A great deal has been left out of the American news media’s rendition of “facts” leading to the current Ukraine War.
The warnings of Eisenhower, Bill Blum, and Noam Chomsky have all fallen on deaf ears in the USA. The result is ever greater loss of human life and ever greater expanding ripples of hatred and anger in the region and around the world.
The naive reader might wonder if this writer is “catastrophizing,” blowing a “tempest in a teapot” into something far greater than it really is. The naïve are reassured by constancy bias that nothing so terrible will actually come of this latest American drive to war in a far away land. To the average western mass media entertainment-soaked consumer another foreign war is of no greater consequence than winning or losing a football or computer game. Yes, hundreds, thousands or millions may die, but its all somehow not real until its too late. That is the way of war.
The New Cold War (flooding the South China Sea with carrier groups and nuclear submarines and trespassing, harassing and surrounding Russia, e.g. with military build-up in Ukraine,[1] Poland and other nations), attacks on Iran, and so on have the very real potential of starting WWIII.
The American habit of “the transfer of savagery”
“Presidential Power and National Violence: James K. Polk’s Rhetorical Transfer of Savagery,” by Stephen J. Heidt
“President James Knox Polk is often lauded for his achievements as president, including the territorial acquisition of the western portion of the nation. Critical attention to this legacy mostly focuses on his rhetorical strategy for putting the nation into war with Mexico.
“To date, no studies focus on Polk’s rhetorical strategy for ending the war. In this article, I examine Polk’s end-of war rhetoric, attending to his rationalizations for exiting the war, his justification for resuming diplomatic relations with Mexico, and his identification of a new enemy requiring presidential and national attention.
“I argue that Polk’s pivot from Mexicans to Indians rhetorically transferred tropes of savagery to Indians, reenergized violence against Indians, and facilitated the institutionalization of management of Indian affairs via the creation of the Department of the Interior.
“I conclude that rhetorical critics should closely attend to the way end-of-war rhetoric enables presidents to transition from one enemy to another while reaping institutional benefits.”
Rhetoric & Public Affairs, Vol. 19, Number 3, Fall 2016, pp. 365-396
Fact Check: Confirmed
Though “national security” is usually used as pretext for those military actions, it is difficult or impossible to prove the validity of such claims. For example, how in 1979-1981 did the Seychelles Islands, located 1,500 kilometers (932 mi.) east of mainland Africa present a credible threat to American national security? Or Fiji, or Portugal?
During its entire history the USA has only experienced 17 years without a war. Many in the USA now admit the Vietnam War was a “mistake,” while others assert the entire war was a War Crime. At minimum two million human beings were killed. Likewise with the Iraq War in which at least 2.38 million human beings have been killed thus far and has likewise been lamented as a “mistake”[1] or a crime, as was the Afghanistan War.
Fact Check: Confirmed
FACT CHECK QUESTIONS 5 – Habits of President Putin
A Nobel Peace Prize?
Though most Euro-Americans will be shocked to read this, a fact-based argument can be made that President Putin is the premier diplomat of the 21st Century.
Some of the wars where President Putin has negotiated peace settlements
…and/or otherwise protected innocent human lives
Libya – President Putin helped negotiate a ceasefire and relative peace in Libya (after the US murdered Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi). Most recently,
2022.02.17 Russia voices support for new Libyan PM - Moscow is throwing its support behind new Prime Minister Fathi Bashagha and its belief that he can "unite Libyan society." https://www.al-monitor.com/originals/2022/02/russia-voices-support-new-libyan-pm
Azerbaijan/Armenia – President Putin helped broker the ceasefire and eventual peace deal between warring Armenia and Azerbaijan
Protection of Syria in illegal war & one of America’s most unreported wars
Missiles rain down on Syria almost daily. To President Putin’s credit,
25 July 2021.07.25 Russia says its air defense systems in Syria intercepted Israeli missiles
Hezbollah, Iranian commanders reported killed in Israeli strikes; Russian military official says 7 of 8 Israeli missiles struck down this week… By TOI staff
https://www.timesofisrael.com/russia-says-its-air-defense-systems-in-syria-intercepted-israeli-missiles/
Also see:
https://www.rt.com/news/546722-us-bombed-dam-syria and,
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2020/12/21/americas-war-on-syrian-civilians
Hasaka, SANA- The Directorate of Social Affairs and Labor in Hasaka province conducted a survey on areas affected by US occupation bombing and the separatist militia of QSD in al-Zohour and Ghweran neighborhoods, Hasaka city during the chaos occurred in the vicinity of the Industrial Secondary Prison last month. / The survey documented the destruction of dozens of citizens’ homes, many public facilities and buildings of educational facilities. / The Director of Social Affairs and Labor in Hasaka, Ibrahim Khalaf, said in a statement to SANA reporter that the US occupation bombing has caused damage to 62 houses in Ghweran and al-Zohour neighborhoods, 12 of which were partially destroyed and 50 ones were razed to the ground. / He added that the occupation bombing also affected the buildings of university faculties of civil engineering and economics, the Institute of Technical Observers, and al-Basel Laboratory. / Local sources told the reporter that the majority of the people, whose homes were destroyed, were forced to displace to temporary housing shelters. http://sana.sy/en/?p=264817
(I have a file, and URLs for sites containing photos of hundreds of dead Syrian children and babies killed by American and Israeli bombs and missiles, but do not post any of them, knowing full well Americans and Israelis cannot tolerate - even for a second - seeing how their tax dollars are really spent. Thus, I posted only the photo of the above bombed and empty building, as if there had been no families living there.)
One might also recall former President Trump’s boast the US was in Syria only to keep the oil. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/nov/13/donald-trump-syria-oil-us-troops-isis-turkey
It appears while the US has been and continues to be busy creating armed conflicts around the world, President Putin has quietly gone around working to put those fires out.
https://www.warvspeace.org/zero-sum-game-nato-v-russia
In sum, it appears President Putin is a skilled diplomat willing to help protect the innocent from illegal, and arguably criminal military attacks by the USA.
FACT CHECK: Confirmed
FACT CHECK QUESTION 6 Were, or are there Nazis working in the CIA?
There are so many ironies in history. Here are a few most readers might not know.
In 1961 then Director of CIA Allen Dulles was reported to have said he was afraid of the growing power of a Nazi faction within the CIA. That’s Ironic because it was Allen Dulles himself who immediately after the end of WWII, using the Catholic Church to secretly bring 1,600 German scientists formerly working for Adolf Hitler into the CIA to work, many of who were indeed working for the Nazi party. Adding to this irony is that John F. Kennedy’s younger brother then made a big stink insisting that the US attack Cuba, before Allen Dulles thought the invasion was ready. The subsequent now notorious “Bay of Pigs” invasion was a disaster for the US, and Allen Dulles fired that same year. It is even more ironic that Allen and his older brother John Foster were largely responsible for the creation of the Nazis in the first place, as before WWII they tirelessly found American and European finance to build up the German and Japanese industries that forced their governments into starting WWII. And then, after the war, the Foster brothers were rewarded for starting the war with lofty positions of power. Allen Dulles became Director of CIA, and John Foster Secretary of State. And thus, one can see the poetic justice in a Nazi faction in the CIA finally bringing down the man that both created their movement, and inserted it into what has become the single most powerful governing body in the world, the CIA. And now, 75 years later, the metastasized fruit of those secretive machinations appear ready to launch WWIII, a war that will have no victors aside from the vultures.
Is that ironic, or what?
One of President Putin’s rational for the invasion of Ukraine was to de-Nazify Ukraine. This may sound ludicrous to the uninitiated, but is very serious indeed to their victims, past, present and future. Please read: https://fair.org/home/western-media-fall-in-lockstep-for-neo-nazi-publicity-stunt-in-ukraine/
Remarkable similarities can be found between American Mainstream News Media and Hitler’s Reich Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda. According to the Holocaust Museum’s website: “Within months of Hitler becoming chancellor, the Nazi regime destroyed the country’s free press. It shut down hundreds of opposition newspapers, forcibly transferred Jewish-owned publishing houses to ‘Aryans,’ and secretly took over established periodicals.” And now the American Empire is suppressing news from American IC/DoD “target” nations which includes a disproportionate number of Muslim countries in addition to Russia, China, and Venezuela.
Some assert a similar process is underway in the US via search engine algorithms that have been suppressing Social Justice/Anti-Empire alt-news on the internet with increasing ferocity especially since 2017 when Mr. Ajit Pai, a second generation Indian immigrant and an opponent of net neutrality became Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). His “conflict of interests” was transparent as India stood to benefit from the demise of net neutrality. Though Californians managed to win it back, other alt-news publications around the USA and world are still suffering from search engine algorithmic tyranny and being largely marginalized.
Some Social Justice/Anti-Empire publications have also experienced frivolous law suits and other forms of harassment, but weather the storms and keep the presses rolling, metaphorically speaking as most are internet based these days.
“The de facto censorship which leaves so many Americans functionally illiterate about the history of US foreign affairs may be all the more effective because it is not so much official, heavy-handed or conspiratorial, as it is woven artlessly into the fabric of education and media. No conspiracy is needed. The editors of Reader’s digest and U.S. News and World Report do not need to meet covertly with the representatives from NBC in an FBI safe-house to plan next month’s stories and programs; for the simple truth is that these individuals would not have reached the positions they occupy if they themselves had not all been guided through the same tunnel of camouflaged history and emerged with the same selective memory and conventional wisdom.”
William Blum, Killing Hope, U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, p. 15 [Permission to quote granted by William Blum via email March 15, 2018]
It’s Fracking Ridiculous - Nord Stream 2 gas line and American anti-competitive trade practices
It’s laughably ridiculous but the USA wants everyone to buy Fracking for Freedom gas from the USA. Environmentally unfriendly (read “poisonous”) and more expensive than other options, the super geniuses in the American administration thinks it can bully everyone into only doing business with the USA.
The only way the USA can maintain absolute hegemony is to strangle anyone and any nation out there in the rest of the world that does not voluntarily wear Made in the USA slave chains. Any attempt at self-determination, and/or participation in any energy production or transportation system that is not 100% controlled by the USA is strictly prohibited and punished with massive death (often preceded by torture) of innocents.
Just one of the primary multi-faceted chains of causation leading to the USA’s buildup to the Ukrainian War was the Nord Stream 2 gas line, a 1,200km pipeline under the Baltic Sea, which should be taking gas from the Russian coast near St Petersburg to Lubmin in Germany. But that won’t happen now due to American’s sabotage at every step along the way, up to and including this current war in Ukraine.
The CIA’s MAD quest for world domination
What’s going on today in Ukraine is nothing new.
Col. Fletcher Prouty in the early 1970s wrote in great depth and detail about how the highly secretive American intelligence apparatus controls many branches of the US and foreign governments and “private” industries including the news, around the world.
“CFR (Council on Foreign Relations) is unmatched in raw power. Top journalists call it ‘the real State Department.’ Newsweek says it is ‘the foreign policy establishment of the US.’ CFR scholars say, ‘With access to the most sensitive and highly confidential state secrets, CFR can render de facto control over the state.’ ‘It is also known as the primary power base of the CIA. (H&M: 729 Sources: Shoup and Minter; L. Fletcher Prouty, The Secret Team: The CIA and Its Allies in Control of the World. NY, Ballantine, 1973).
“Some cases of CIA funding can be readily substantiated, to the Retail Clerks (now UFCW-United Food and Commercial Workers), Communications Workers (CWA), Newspaper Guild (ANG), Public Workers (AFSCME-American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees), Oil and Chemical Workers (OCAW). We may never know how much money went into CIA-Labor activity, but a well-known columnist pegged it around $100,000,000 a year' (H&M: 732. Sources: William Grieder, Washington Post, May 21, 1969; Paul Jacobs, How the CIA Makes Liars Out of Union Leaders, Ramparts, May 1967; New York Post, February 24, 1967).
“The monumental attempt to restructure and subordinate nations around the world under CIA direction had nothing to do with planting seeds of democracy...”
Did the reader notice “the Newspaper Guild” above? In fact, the CIA has been “influencing" and shaping world news to its own agenda since the 1950s. Free press? That died a long time ago. We live in a world of “Manufactured Consent.”
https://peertube.fr/w/73bb7858-da66-430b-9aa6-fa965840bf7c
https://prruk.org/noam-chomsky-the-five-filters-of-the-mass-media-machine
FACT CHECK: Confirmed
LGBTQ Community
The transgender community above all should support peace, and President Putin in the current Ukraine conflict. Why? The so-called “Intelligence community” of the USA is ready, willing and able to trigger WWIII in order to hang on to its delusions of “hegemony in perpetuity” (absolute domination of the entire world forever). In the case of WWIII, global, and American supply chains for transgender hormone treatments will be disrupted for decades at least. Thus, there is a certain “enlightened self-interest” in persuading the American administration to stop orchestrating and funding the Ukraine War.
True, President Putin is an “old-school” sort of guy that believes men should be men, and women, women. The fact of this matter is: If straight people should be tolerant of the LGBTQ community, isn’t it also true that the LGBTQ community should be tolerant of the straight community?
President Putin is a cowboy (that’s for sure), though perhaps not of the Brokeback Mountain sort, but he does have a certain likeable quality in that he lives his dreams, and has ideals that don’t always follow the American alt-right or radical left. That, in and of itself, is not a crime. Likewise, who really knows what the rich and famous are doing behind closed doors? Russia has one of the lowest population densities in the world, and the fastest, cheapest and most effective way to make lots and lots of babies is to promote strong families and traditional values.
In other words, there are a variety of good reasons to not judge President Putin too quickly, or harshly. Those who work for peace deserve to be given the benefit of doubt in most arenas of life, in this humble writer’s opinion. President Putin is a champion of the oppressed, as Russia and China have been since WWII at least.
Lastly, and perhaps firstly, ponder that the LGBTQ people I have known and lived with over the decades have much higher levels of empathy than the general public. Where is that empathy for the millions of victims of the American War Machine, just since the end of WWII? How many beautiful people have been murdered and buried in unmarked graves, or not even allowed the dignity of any final resting place at all? Russia, China and Iran are not even in the same killing league with the USA – the supreme and most ruthless killer in all of “human” history. Dead people, it should be noted, do not have the freedom to be LGBT or Q.
These are just some of the common grounds upon which the LGBTQ communities can and should meditate before jumping on the American War party’s bandwagon, now led by President Joseph Biden and his band of grim and proven war profiteers.
True, those Nazis were and are some snappy dressers, but that does not in any way justify the ugliness of what they have been doing locally and internationally from their inception.
Conclusions
In January 17, 1961 in this farewell address, President Dwight Eisenhower warned against the establishment of a "military-industrial complex." The following is a part of that speech.
In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.
We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic processes. We should take nothing for granted only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing of huge industrial and military machinery of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.
Akin to, and largely responsible for the sweeping changes in our industrial-military posture, has been the technological revolution during recent decades.
In this revolution, research has become central; it also becomes more formalized, complex, and costly. A steadily increasing share is conducted for, by, or at the direction of, the Federal government.
Today, the solitary inventor, tinkering in his shop, has been over shadowed by task forces of scientists in laboratories and testing fields. In the same fashion, the free university, historically the fountainhead of free ideas and scientific discovery, has experienced a revolution in the conduct of research. Partly because of the huge costs involved, a government contract becomes virtually a substitute for intellectual curiosity. For every old blackboard there are now hundreds of new electronic computers.
The prospect of domination of the nation's scholars by Federal employment, project allocations, and the power of money is ever present and is gravely to be regarded.
Yet, in holding scientific research and discovery in respect, as we should, we must also be alert to the equal and opposite danger that public policy could itself become the captive of a scientific-technological elite.
https://www.archives.gov/milestone-documents/president-dwight-d-eisenhowers-farewell-address
The American people failed to listen, and now, President Putin is the one and only man on planet earth who has the moral conviction and military backing to say: “Stop.”
What makes him so special?
https://www.armscontrol.org/factsheets/Nuclearweaponswhohaswhat
Well, there is that.
FACT CHECK: Confirmed
The fact of the matter is US corporate board members, shareholders and their pets in politics must get used to the idea that the USA cannot lord over the entire earth forever. The argument can be made that the Democrats, other war whores and presstitutes have really gone over the top this time. “My Gawd!” even the most Confederate of Confederates would exclaim: “President Biden is even killing white folks!” So, they pin it on the Russians and bombs away!
A multi-polar world has emerged, and the USA cannot kill everyone involved to stop it (like usual) without suffering at least equal and opposite blowback. Sending mercenaries and infinite weapons to Ukraine is only pouring gasoline on the fire. There no solution for the USA besides growing up and letting go of its infinite Narcissism and hubris before its too late.
Had the US been an honest global policeman, things would most certainly have been different. But that didn’t happen. The US robs and smashes every country it invades. The death toll, and bank of human misery, suffering and loss into which the US has solely invested, is beyond calculation.
The only real solutions to this “existential” dilemma reside with the American voters. If they can’t stop the American Leviathan, then a thermonuclear war will have to do the job.
I do not believe President Putin “trapped” president Biden.
Instead, I believe the flawed nature of democracy and unrestrained capitalism, married to the infinite greed of President Biden’s closest associates is what has, and will continue to bring the American political system to its knees.
Why Socrates Hated Democracy
https://www.theschooloflife.com/thebookoflife/why-socrates-hated-democracy
My only motivation in preparing this manuscript is knowledge that average families, the disabled, and children most of all - all around the world and even in the USA - will suffer immeasurably more because of the infinite greed of the American predatory capitalist system, now even more corrupted than ever by unlimited amounts of cash from anonymous sources. When the turmoil that is to come finally abates, there is no doubt in my mind socialism will emerge as the most humane of political philosophies.
Was Jesus not a socialist?
Jesus said unto him, If you would be perfect, go and sell all that you have, and give it to the poor, and you shall have treasure in heaven: and come and follow me.
Matthew 19:21
Fact Check: Confirmed – No capitalist would ever say that.
And does the good book not also say:
Ye have heard that it hath been said, Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.
But I say to you, that ye against-stand not an evil man; but if any smite thee in the right cheek, show to him also the other
Matthew 5:38-39 (Wycliffe translation)
And what does the Good Book say about the wages of SIN (like killing people)? Well, nothing good one can presume.
Do the Hebrew 10 Commandments not forbid killing?
The fifth commandment forbids intentional killing, ranks it as a grave sin, and there are those who believe it is the one unforgivable sin.
The Qur'an reports in 59:23 that peace is one of the names of God himself: “He is God, other than whom there is no god, the King, the Holy, the Peace, the Defender, the Guardian, the Mighty, the Omnipotent, the Supreme.”
The first law of Buddhism is to “Protect Life.”
Chapter 42 of the Daoist Tao Te Ching warns: "A violent man does not die a natural death."
Are the similarities in all these philosophies coincidental?
I believe in the end President Putin will be exonerated for his actions in Ukraine.
Is that military action fair to the innocent families in Ukraine? No. Is that his fault? Arguably not.
That is the fault of the seriously flawed political and economic structures in the USA.
The primary questions as I see it now are, can thermonuclear war be avoided until after President Biden’s bloodthirsty cult of Democrat political leaders are voted out of office in November, and can Republicans come up with political candidates that are not insane prior to that election?
What would I do if I were a Ukrainian in Ukraine right now? The exact same thing I am doing here now. It is springtime. I would head for the hills, take up the life of a simple farmer and wait for the storm to pass.
Psalms 37:11 — “But the meek shall inherit the earth; and shall delight themselves in the abundance of peace.”
As for the killers? I wouldn’t want to be in their shoes.
Isn’t it time for…
A New American Dream?
The old one was, and still is, a nightmare.
https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/moro-insurgents-1906
Center is 9-year-old Phan Thị Kim Phúc Oont in South Vietnam after suffering extensive Napalm burns on her back from US bombing. Photo by Nick Ut
And those, dear readers, are the facts.
APPENDIX 1: Theories on President Putin’s endgame
In order to make any guesses as to President Putin’s planned endgame in Ukraine, it is necessary to know something about his background.
President Putin’s background
According to the South China Morning Post newspaper, President Putin grew up in a working-class family. His two older brothers died before he was born, and no doubt his parents cherished him. His father was a naval officer which suggests he might not have always been around. He started Judo at the age of 11 and his mother was not pleased with his new hobby.
Sports, particularly judo can have a profound effect on a young person’s life. Judo is more cognitively and physically demanding than most sports. One must learn a great many things including sportsmanship, balance, how to win and lose gracefully in addition to several sets of technical skills. Judo is a unique art in that one cannot simply react instinctively, but rather must have practiced, highly disciplined intelligent responses to what can be precarious situations. Power is not met with power, but rather turned to one’s advantage. Many of the best sides of Japanese, Chinese, and Buddhist philosophies are inculcated in Judo. Because he started Judo quite young, sportsmanship is probably a large part of his personality, which might be one reason he has the courage to stand up to the bullies that were killing his friends in Donetsk and Lugansk.
Socrates was also a courageous man with the audacity to disagree intelligently with the collective opinion of the Greek democrats. Socrates was also a former soldier. Is it possible martial training, either as a soldier or a martial artist gives a person that extra measure of courage needed to demand justice in what is often an unjust world?
Theory 1: President Putin will not stop until the US removes its military threats from nearby countries.
President Putin simply wants Ukraine to function as a safe and responsible neighbor that does not permit foreign agitators, weapons, militias, and so on to threaten his nation or massively abuse (e.g., kill) its own people as was clearly happening in Donetsk and Lugansk (as the killing of 13,000 people results in a great deal of bloodshed on his doorstep).
One of the nice things about President Putin is he made his demands clear long before his invasion of Ukraine.
They include a demand that Nato remove any troops or weapons deployed to countries that entered the alliance after 1997, which would include much of eastern Europe, including Poland, the former Soviet countries of Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, and the Balkan countries. Russia has also demanded that Nato rule out further expansion, including the accession of Ukraine into the alliance, and that it does not hold drills without previous agreement from Russia in Ukraine, eastern Europe, in Caucasus countries such as Georgia or in Central Asia.
Though it may seem remedial, the reader is asked to consider how the US would feel if Russians placed tanks, missiles and soldiers all along its borders with Mexico and Canada, and strategically placed them in surrounding islands and even more distant territories.
Though this might sound impossible or unlikely, the US is currently standing on an economic precipice that can drive it into a greater poverty level than Afghanistan, and there is no doubt there are a great many people in a great many countries who have less than pleasant feelings for the United States. There is no doubt the US has reached that economic inflection point where making friends should start to enter its consciousness as a form of security. Simply pursuing its own interests at the expense of everyone else in the world is not a productive way to survive and thrive in the family of nations.
Russia is a resource rich country and President Biden’s war in Ukraine is directly responsible for driving energy prices including gasoline higher than ever before in history, and has virtually guaranteed a Republican sweep in the next elections.
President Biden has indeed created his own trap and is currently falling down a rabbit hole of his own making. It is long past time to start to think of making a deal with President Putin. That deal cannot be made by reading a bulleted list of demands as he usually does. Instead, President Biden will have to be reasonable and polite, for a change.
Theory 2: The US reacts badly to Theory 1, and thermonuclear war ensues
Theory 2 is a reiteration of Theory 1, except the US reacts badly and declares war on Russia. In this scenario, the US will be obliterated and large parts of Russia uninhabitable for some decades and possibly centuries to come.
Americans should know defense planners in both Russia and China have predicted that WWIII and nuclear war are nearly inevitable since the early 1960s and are far better prepared to survive as civilizations than the US. True, a majority of people will die, but the civilizations will survive. Ultra-rich Americans will survive for a while only if they leave the US in time, but they will almost certainly be hunted down and killed by furious mobs of poor people no matter where they try to hide.
In other words, President Putin is the wrong guy to mess with.
If the USA with all of its might and fury could not defeat the impoverished Taliban in 20 years, what makes American defense planners think they can take down Russia in its own backyard without going to, and possible over the brink into thermonuclear war? Those defense planners should perhaps read more Japanese books on fighting strategy instead of just Sun Tzu’s Art of War. Remember, Judo is from Japan, and Sun Tzu from China. There is a difference.
President Putin is likely to use strategies President Biden and his generals cannot even conceive of. To quote from Musashi’s “Book of Five Rings…”
This is the way for men who want to learn my strategy:
1. Do not think dishonestly.
2. The Way is in training.
3. Become acquainted with every art.
4. Know the Ways of all professions.
5. Distinguish between gain and loss in worldly matters.
6. Develop intuitive judgement and understanding for everything.
7. Perceive those things which cannot be seen.
8. Pay attention even to trifles.
9. Do nothing which is of no use.
It is important to start by setting these broad principles in your heart, and train in the Way of Strategy.
Go No Rin by Miyamoto Musashi written around 1645
Imagine a politician in Washington DC thinking honestly! Such a concept is unthinkable, laughable, beyond preposterous!
The Russian manufacturing sector does not appear to have even tried to compete in producing cell phones or refrigerators probably because nearly all of their best and brightest have been brought into their defense department to focus on weapons that will not fail and one can expect they received nearly unlimited state support.
I don’t mean to “give away the game” here, but President Biden should seriously reconsider the predicament he has created allowing his gang of war-profiteers to irritate President Putin so much he finally had to take defensive measures to protect his own nation. Going around blaming other people for one’s own aggression is the height of immaturity, and the word “hubris” leaps again to mind.
The US and European media have successfully bamboozled their voting publics for the time being, but the warm glow of western guns blazing away at an imaginary evil Russia is going to fade as they wait in lines at gas pumps to fuel their cars, and fade even faster as US and European economies sink even further. Continuing to cut and divide the world is not a way to promote prosperity for anyone. That, if any, should have been the lesson taught by the American Great Depression of 1929.
To figure out President Putin’s strategy in the war started by the US in 2014 thus far, one need read no further than another great Japanese sword master: Yamamoto Tsunetomo.
When there is something to be said, it is better if it is said right away. If it is said later, it will sound like an excuse. Moreover, it is occasionally good to really overwhelm your opponent. Also, in addition to having spoken sufficiently it is the highest sort of victory to teach your opponent something that will be to his benefit. This is in accordance with the Way.
Hagakuri by Yamamoto Tsunetomo, compiled from conversations held between 1709 to 1716. https://archive.org/details/pdfy-W91d_RoynCCibBAf
When President Biden realizes the full magnitude of his error, he may experience “health issues.” One can only hope Vice President Kamala Harris will have learned something from these experiences and follow a path of peace.
Did President Putin make a strategic error not responding to American provocations in Donbass back in 2014? I don’t think so. He had to wait until more of the world decoupled from the dollar, as US attacks upon and economic sanctions against Iran finally caused. In other words, President Putin very carefully chose the timing of this encounter.
“Timing is important in dancing and pipe or string music, for they are in rhythm only if timing is good. Timing and rhythm are also involved in the military arts, shooting bows and guns, and riding horses. In all skills and abilities there is timing.... There is timing in the whole life of the warrior, in his thriving and declining, in his harmony and discord. Similarly, there is timing in the Way of the merchant, in the rise and fall of capital. All things entail rising and falling timing. You must be able to discern this. In strategy there are various timing considerations. From the outset you must know the applicable timing and the inapplicable timing, and from among the large and small things and the fast and slow timings find the relevant timing, first seeing the distance timing and the background timing. This is the main thing in strategy. It is especially important to know the background timing, otherwise your strategy will become uncertain.”
Hagakuri by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (Italics added by this author.)
Isn’t it time for peace?
Photo by Juliane Liebermann on Unsplash
It is Spring and time for planting – planting something good.
[1] John McCain’s shocking concession on the Iraq War: it was a “mistake” In his new memoir, McCain says he’s to blame for the war, by Tara Golshan May 25, 2018 https://www.vox.com/2018/5/25/17394466/john-mccain-memoir-iraq-war-mistake
Iraq war was a terrible mistake - From fighting Saddam to fighting ISIS, By Fareed Zakaria, CNN, October 26, 2015 https://edition.cnn.com/2015/10/26/opinions/zakaria-iraq-war-lessons/index.html
Iraq: The Biggest Mistake in American Military History https://www.forbes.com/sites/lorenthompson/2011/12/15/the-biggest-mistake-in-american-military-history/?sh=76cb2f9e2d3b
[1] Ukraine https://thegrayzone.com/2019/06/04/facebook-public-policy-manager-ukraine-kateryna-kruk/
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/08/us-arming-of-ukraine-is-a-scandal-on-its-own/ https://thegrayzone.com/2019/11/23/yes-ukraine-interference-in-the-2016-presidential-election/
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/07/20/ukrainian-think-tank-neo-nazi-racist-violence/
https://southfront.org/military-situation-in-eastern-ukraine-on-april-1-2021-map-update 1/4/2021
https://southfront.org/a-spring-promise-of-war 31.03.2021
https://southfront.org/kiev-builds-up-legal-conditions-to-justify-its-upcoming-aggression-in-donbass 30.03.2021
https://southfront.org/kiev-scrambles-to-justify-the-incoming-storm
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/07/20/ukrainian-think-tank-neo-nazi-racist-violence
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/10/08/us-arming-of-ukraine-is-a-scandal-on-its-own
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/09/23/bomb-extremist-us-soldier-fbi-ukrainian-nazi-azov
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/03/26/canadian-conservative-party-bandera-canada/
https://thegrayzone.com/2018/12/10/nato-ukraine-president-poroshenko-nazi-soldier-totenkopf/
https://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/revolutions-pretext-imperialism (Ukraine March 13, 2014)
https://thegrayzone.com/2018/07/09/yuri-biryukov-ukraine-president-adviser-heil-hitler-neo-nazi/
https://thegrayzone.com/2019/12/04/ukrainian-nazis-hong-kong-protests/
https://thegrayzone.com/2020/11/18/key-mueller-witness-exposes-key-russiagate-lies/
https://thegrayzone.com/2018/10/30/c14-ukrainian-nazi-kiev-police-america-house/
https://thegrayzone.com/2018/07/10/ukraine-embassy-israel-arming-nazis-max-blumenthal/
https://thegrayzone.com/2018/02/05/max-blumenthal-us-is-arming-neo-nazis-in-ukraine/