What is the role of the military?

Global Network board member and Iraq & Afghanistan war veteran Will Griffin doing a fascinating review of his recent round of talks to high school students in New York City.

I think you will learn alot from Will's presentation.

He also comments on the current state of education in the schools where cutbacks and reductions in teaching staffs are having real impact on what kids know these days.  Is this dumbing down of American citizens just by chance or is it a systematic program?

Who does it benefit when the American people don't know their own history or contemporary foreign policy?

I can promise you that these kids left this presentation by Will with their heads spinning.  I think it is safe to say that this was a life-changing experience for most of them.

Will produces videos at an amazing rate and has a video channel where you can see all of them.  It's called The Peace Report which you can find here.

We need more activists like Will Griffin.  You should consider offering a donation to him at his Peace Report site.  He's a good one.

Bruce

Plymouth Rock: Some real talk and healing

Speaking on site at Plymouth Rock. A longer explanation of the roots of Thanksgiving and how we as a multicultural people can transmute our situation into beauty and healing. This Thanksgiving, let’s eat and have some real talk. The truth will set us free.

Lyla June is poet, musician, educator, anthropologist, activist and community servant of Diné (Navajo), Tsétsêhéstâhese (Cheyenne) and European lineages.  She holds a degree in Environmental Anthropology with honors from Stanford University and a degree in American Indian Education with distinction from the University of New Mexico.

🎥Produced by Bill Hurley

Don't freak out - agitate!

Not to be missed video - very important stuff here....

At a private donor meeting ($$$$$$$) Obama warns voters not to go too far to the left......

Come on over....

Turkey with no talk? Please pass the muzzles.....

While cooking rice pudding this morning (for the first time ever) I was listening to NPR (National Petroleum Radio) and they were doing a segment on Thanksgiving dinner - how to avoid family conflict over politics.

They had on a couple 'experts' who suggested that families should avoid discussing controversial subjects like politics and religion.  One wag made the suggestion that when someone brings up an 'uncomfortable' subject the host should redirect the conversation like this, "Well Uncle Joe, tell us about your recent trip to Greece."

America, the world's supposed greatest democracy, is now afraid to discuss politics and the folks that guide the thinking of the nation (corporate run media) have decided that in this land of the free (and home of the brave) that we should keep our traps shut and just discuss mundane subjects like sports, shopping, crap TV shows and the like.

The US military is actively spreading 'democracy' around the world at the point of a gun wishing to show the great unwashed people of the planet just how it is all supposed to work.  Ugh!

It is my belief that people would be less divided in America if the corporate media actually reported the truth about what was going on with our government.  Take for example the recent coup d'etat in Bolivia that was clearly orchestrated by the CIA.  Some of us actually understand what happened there because we find other sources of information while the majority of Americans still fall for the propaganda that comes from the mainstream media.  So yes, this is one example of where conflict at the dinner table could arise.  But are we just supposed to fear telling our relatives and friends what actually happened in Bolivia?  According to NPR the answer is absolutely YES.

One friend this morning sent around a link to a story about Extinction Rebellion’s global climate hunger strike and he commented, "Here is an excellent Thanksgiving story. Hunger strikers are missing Thanksgiving while Pelosi feasts. Let's make it go viral so people are discussing it with their families on Thanksgiving."

NPR would not approve of this! Only open your mouths to stuff food down your gullet!

Talk about the coming climate catastrophe?  No way. Forget about the kid's future - no worries....

Could we talk about Joe Biden's son being linked to $16.5 million of Ukrainian funds siphoned off into Hunter (and friends) pockets?  No don't do that - no need to upset anyone.

How about we talk about the growing wealth divide in the US (and around the world) as corporate oligarchs rob the people blind and we have record levels of homeless people this Thanksgiving? Sorry, not allowed!

Maybe we could all discuss our 800 military bases around the globe and the $6.4 trillion that has been wasted on endless war since 2001?  Just imagine how those funds could have been used for sustainable technology development, schools, health care and the like.  Nope, not allowed!

Just ask yourself, how we can have 'democracy' while we create a dumbed down public that is afraid to discuss relevant issues that face us all?  It's nonsense!

So ignore the NPR propaganda.  If someone wants to talk about politics at dinner please join in the discussion.  You don't have to be rude or mean spirited - but you can listen, learn and share your heartfelt feelings about a particular issue that concerns you.  Someone, including each of us, might just learn something new.

That is how 'democracy' is supposed to work.

Bruce
PS My rice pudding turned out quite nicely.

Jamming more military onto already militarized Hawaiian islands

The Pentagon is planning to build a billion dollar radar system called the Homeland Defense Radar –Hawaii (HDR-H) on Oahu, Hawaii.

Global Network board member Lynda Williams (Physics teacher) was interviewed about the radar. Read her report Billion Dollar Expansion of Missile Defense in Hawaii here

Upside down thinking....

Aaron Maté speaks about how corporate media propaganda, from Russiagate to Ukrainegate, promotes war and hawkish foreign policy, and how liberals have embraced this belligerence in the era of President Donald Trump.

(On the panel "PROPAGANDA: How Propaganda Manufactures Consent," organized by the Big Apple Coffee Party in New York City on November 19.)

Civilians still being bombed by Nazis

Up close look at a village in the Donetsk Peoples Republic (Donbass) under continual attack by the Ukrainian Army (Ukrops) and the Nazi death squads.

Filmmaker Regis Tremblay visited the war-torn and badly damaged Petrovsky District of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine near the Russian border.

Russell 'Texas' Bentley (who came to Donbass in 2014 to help defend the people) led a guided tour of the very poor, civilian district that has been repeatedly bombed by Ukrainian military forces. (Mostly coal mine workers community.)

Much to their delight, they met a group of grannies who told of their plight and showered them with gifts of homemade wine, pickles, and jam.

The woman at the very end shares her nightly prayer which is promised to bring tears to your eyes and heart.

Moms Demand Action

This Issue host Bruce Gagnon interviews guests Kathleen McFadden & Nacole Palmer from Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America.  Their organization, part of a national network, has been working hard across Maine for several years, locally and in Augusta, to bring attention and legislative change to our state’s gun laws.  (Thanks to VFP member Peter Morgan for arranging their appearance on the show.)

This Issue is produced by David Brooks.  Camera work was done by Peter Woodruff and Dan Ellis.  Dan Ellis also did the final editing. Photos provided by Moms Demand Action.

This Issue runs each week during the following days/times on Brunswick's Cable TV Channel 3:

Wed  6:00 pm
Friday  2:30 pm
Sat  2:01 am
Sunday  8:30 pm

* This Issue also airs on Bath, Harpswell, Portland, Phippsburg, Freeport, New Castle, Madison, Skowhegan, Anson, North Anson, Solon, Belfast, South Portland, and Biddeford public access cable TV at random times.  Check local listings. 

Sunday song

College football delayed by Climate Catastrophe protest

ESPN reports:

The start of the second half of Saturday's Harvard-Yale game was delayed by nearly an hour after a number of spectators rushed the field to stage a climate change protest.

The field was ultimately cleared, and the game resumed at 2:48 p.m. ET.

Some protesters held banners asking their colleges to act on climate change and Puerto Rican debt relief, including one sign that read, "Nobody wins. Yale & Harvard are complicit in climate injustice."

"Hey hey, ho ho, fossil fuels have got to go," some protesters chanted.

Caleb Schwartz, a Harvard student and spokesman for the group Divest Harvard, said Saturday's protest was the result of months of coordination.

"This is a very deliberate choice of targeting this specific [game] to get our action out there," Schwartz told ESPN's Paul Kix.

In a statement, the Ivy League referred to the protest as "regrettable."

In its own statement, Yale said that while it "stands firmly for the right to free expression," it had issues with how the protesters went about their demonstration.

"The exercise of free expression on campus is subject to general conditions, and we do not allow disruption of university events," Yale said in a statement.

Saturday was the 136th edition of "The Game" between Harvard and Yale. The Bulldogs clinch the Ivy League title with their 50-43 win in double overtime.

The delay created by the protesters presented a potential problem for the game's finish as Yale Bowl lacks stadium lights and the double-overtime conclusion forced the game to be completed in near darkness.

Where is the sand going?

Denis Delestrac made his debut in non-fiction filmmaking in 2001 and scored a number of hits including IMAX blockbuster "Mystery of the Nile" and "Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space", his first feature award-winning documentary.

His latest feature documentary, "Sand Wars" is an epic eco-thriller that takes the audience around the globe to unveil a new gold rush and a disturbing fact: we are running out of sand!

In his talk he explains to us where sand comes from and where it ends up. Our perception is that the resource sand will always be available for us but thanks to his investigations we realize that this is not true and that sooner or later we will be running out of sand - and consequently won´t have beaches anymore.

The ecological results of loss of sand is staggering.

The origins of the Ukraine story.....

There is much confusion these days about the Ukraine story.  That confusion sadly also widely exists within the 'progressive community' as well.

It never ceases to amaze me how many so-called enlightened activists fall victim to the non-stop lies and distortions that daily come to us from NPR, Washington Post, New York Times, CNN, Fox, MSNBC and more.  The truth is out there if one is willing to search for it and allow yourself to be skeptical of the same media outlets that sold us the Vietnam War and the 2003 'shock and awe' in Iraq (among many other recent regime change wars).

This video is a must watch.

Hear Victoria Nuland's (Hillary Clinton's Asst. Secretary of State for European-Affairs) phone call to Obama's  Ambassador to Ukraine, Geoffrey Pyatt, in a 'conversation' that was leaked to the news media on February 4, 2014.

'Fuck the EU', says Nuland as they discuss who the US will accept as the 'new president' of Ukraine following the coup d'etat that Washington led in 2014. Then Nuland talks about bringing in a United Nations guy and V-P Joe Biden to give their blessings for the 'new' government in Ukraine.  A complete Washington orchestration.

What's really important here is the level of planning for the coup that overthrew the elected President Viktor Yanukovych, which brought to power (as heard on the recording) a group of selected puppets described as 'moderate democrats.' In fact, most of them, including Oleh Tyahnybok (just below whom Nuland insists the new head of state consult four times weekly), are a far-right nationalist faction with overt and long-standing ties to the neo-Nazi movement.

Meet the characters in the story that led to what's called 'the worst crisis since the old cold war' and which Russia experts describe as a new cold war more dangerous than the first.

Both parties (Repub and Dem) are complicit in this Ukraine mess.  They created it and are doing this fake impeachment circus act in Washington to distract and confuse the public.  If you fall in line behind either corrupt party you are just being used.

Put your ear to the railroad tracks and hear the train coming.....

Bruce

the funnies......

The American dream has turned into a terrible nightmare for most of the people and our Mother Earth.

What does the opposition party stand for?

Comedian Jimmy Dore pushes back on impeachment/Ukrainegate, Hillary Clinton’s smear of Tulsi Gabbard as a Russian asset, the DNC’s 2020 gift-wrapping for Trump, and more.

These are all important questions as we rush head-long into the 2020 elections.

Aaron Maté interviews Jimmy.

Jimmy is more courageous than many 'commentators' out there today and he is funny as well.  One could call it 'political entertainment'.

I'm a big fan of Jimmy Dore and watch all of his videos.  His viewing numbers are growing and recently he's being interviewed by 'serious' journalists which shows that he's become so popular that they want to be associated with him - hoping his popularity will rub off on them a bit.

It is quite a statement about life in America that you have to listen to a comedian to get your news - or at least a real honest take on the news.

But we take what we can get these days.  

Bruce 

Digging up the 'Deep State'

Chris Hedges talks to author Stephen Kinzer about the CIA’s quest for mind control through its experiments in drug and torture during the 1950s and 1960s, both domestically and internationally.

Kinzer’s new book is titled Poisoner in Chief: Sidney Gottlieb and the CIA Search for Mind Control.

Remembering the Aztecs: Live by the sword, die by the sword

Bob Dale, 95 years old and member of Veterans For Peace, and me standing together before one of our weekly Friday vigils in Brunswick on the town green.  The vigils have been happening each week since just after 9-11 in 2001.

On Friday I was back at the PeaceWorks vigil in Brunswick after being gone for the past month.  Bob Dale, his wife Jean Parker, Rosie Paul and others keep it going - rain, snow, sleet, sunshine - what ever the weather might be.

It is dark now as we gather at 5:00 pm on the busiest corner in Brunswick (population about 20,000).

As we were standing with our signs my first thought was how glad I was to be here again with our good peeps - sucking exhaust fumes.  (I often wonder what almost 40 years of regularly doing this has done to my lungs?)

We got some honks which is normal for these parts - but rarely does anyone stop and chat nor hardly ever is anyone so inspired that they come stand with us.

I started thinking about the collapse of the Aztec civilization in the early to mid-1500's.  There were many reasons for that empire's fall (including disease brought by conquering European invaders and their superior weapons technology) but an additional one was that violent nature of the Aztecs.

Aztec-history.com reports:

There's little doubt that the ritual Aztec sacrifice contributed to the fall of the Aztec Empire, and in more ways than one. First, killing thousands of people, whether you or your neighbors, simply can't be good for a society. The loss of people is a loss that can't be calculated. Who knows how it would have been different if these people and their children had swelled the ranks that fought the Spanish, not to mention the other contributions they would have made.

And although the Aztecs certainly weren't the first people ever to sacrifice humans, the fact that they did and the incredible number they sacrificed led to the hatred of some of the surrounding peoples. The powerful city-state of Tlaxcala was one of these. Many of their own had been sacrificed, and in the end they joined the Spaniards to fight the Aztecs. It may be that the Spanish simply were an excuse to start what was already an inevitable civil war.

While admittedly this is not an exact comparison - as I stood there on the corner I saw myself standing with a sign in Aztec land calling for the renunciation of violence and empire.  Few were impressed (in my imagination) and it was a bit dangerous to take such a political and culture position during that time.

Fast forward to 2019 and we stand in a nation that is addicted to violence - domestic and international.  Killing on a grand scale making the Aztecs look like amateurs in a sense.  Each week another school or mall shooting occurs here in the land of the free and home of the brave.  Seven wars are going on today where the US uses extreme violence to steal resources and topple governments.

No one was ever held responsible for the 2003 'shock and awe' criminality that George W. Bush and Tony Blair unleashed in Iraq.  Those were pure mass killings - war crimes to be certain.

The vicious invading Spaniards put the final touch on the close of the Aztec civilization with their own brand of 'regime change' wars.  The last Aztec emperor, Cuauhtémoc, surrendered to Spanish commander Hernando Cortes in 1521.  It's been non-stop mass violence ever since with the US now the most 'efficient killer' on the planet.  
 

Our economy in America is dedicated to what the Pentagon calls 'security export'.  I call it addiction to war and violence - like a drug needle in the arm.  We 'gotta have' more war - it keeps the production lines humming in virtually every state in America.

What is the cure?  How about a 12-step program where we all stand up and put our hands on our hearts and repeat:  "Hello, my name is America, and I am addicted to war and violence"?

So I continue to join my other dedicated friends holding our signs, sometimes getting arrested for stepping over some 'property line' or blocking traffic - just to interrupt 'business as usual'.  Hoping to trigger some thought, some reflection by this American culture that drips in blood.

Am I optimistic?  No.  Do I think the US imperial project is in collapse mode?  Absolutely.

What comes next?  Who knows?

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

Bruce

Obama calling......

Sunday song

THE GREAT MANDALA (The Wheel of Life) -  Peter Yarrow


So I told him that he'd better shut his mouth

And do his job like a man.

And he answered "Listen, Father,

I will never kill another."

He thinks he's better

than his brother that died

What the hell does he think he's doing

To his father who brought him up right?

Chorus:

Take your place on The Great Mandala

As it moves through your brief moment of time.

Win or lose now you must choose now

And if you lose you're only losing your life.


Tell the jailer not to bother

With his meal of bread and water today.

He is fasting 'til the killing's over

He's a martyr, he thinks he's a prophet.

But he's a coward, he's just playing a game

He can't do it, he can't change it

It's been going on for ten thousand years

(Chorus)

Tell the people they are safe now

Hunger stopped him, he lies still in his cell.

Death has gagged his accusations


We are free now, we can kill now,

We can hate now, now we can end the world

We're not guilty, he was crazy

And it's been going on for ten thousand years!


Take your place on The Great Mandala

As it moves through your brief moment of time.

Win or lose now you must choose now

And if you lose you've only wasted your life.

Is it a crime to tell the truth?

Bolivia President Evo Morales at the United Nations in February of this year.  Right in front of Trump.

As my mother used to say, "The proof is in the pudding."

You can't speak the truth to the 'hound dog' and not expect to get over thrown.  You are supposed to be a supplicant and bow before the master.

Morales has too much courage and integrity to do it any other way.

The US is a moral midget in this world.

The American people should be ashamed.

But it is not just Trump.  Over throwing governments is what Washington does - no matter Republican or Democrat in office.  The US is an outlaw regime.  (Please note that the Democrats, who hate Trump and are trying to impeach him, have nothing of any substance to say about this latest 'regime change' action.  Their silence speaks quite clearly.)

These are war crimes - severe violations of international law.  How come sanctions are not imposed on the US when they keep interfering in other nation's internal affairs?

How come the American people (and much of the west) remain largely silent over these evil deeds?

Bruce

Ukraine's parliament votes to sell farm land

The Rada in action on November 13 as they voted to sell off Ukraine's rich farmland to international agri-business interests.  This was demanded by the IMF as a way to settle Ukraine's growing debt crisis.  The public hugely opposed the new law but no one cares what they think.

Ukraine's parliament (the Rada) bent over to accommodate the dictates of the IMF and international capital that wants to grab the one remaining asset in the country - the land.  The plan is to grow GMO crops there and to actually export the good farming soil to other countries.

You can see more about this horrid example of 'democracy' at this site which covers Ukraine issues about as well as anyone - just click here.

The big fight in Washington is about 'continuing' the Ukraine policy initiated by Hillary Clinton, Joe Biden and the rest of the elites from the Obama administration.  This land sale law is a by-product of that failed policy.

Rise up to survive

Home at last

After a long series of flights from Crimea to Moscow to New York City to Boston and then bus ride to Maine, Mary Beth picked me up at 7:00 pm last night in Portland and took me straight to an Italian restaurant for Eggplant Parmesan.  I needed it.

I have to say it is wonderful to be home - it was a great trip - but a month is a long time, especially when you are 67 years old.

The amazing thing is that MB never complained - not one word of criticism - as I went off for a month-long organizing trip.

I want to thank all those along the way on this journey to India, Nepal, Moscow, Lugansk, Donetsk, and Crimea who offered me hospitality and friendship.

Now I have a big stack of work to catch up on and as I sit at my desk and look out the window I see the snow and ice already accumulating - it is unusual in my experience in Maine to see this before Thanksgiving.  But it is beautiful and the sun was out for a bit this morning.

I am in my pajamas (and might just stay in them all day). It is good to be alive and after a cup of tea and some peanut butter toast (how I craved it for the last month) I am ready to get back to raising sand as they say down yonder south.

Thanks to all who have checked the blog during my trip to see how things were going.  I hope you found it at least interesting at times.  I made it my goal to try to post something each day when possible in order to give a small picture of my experiences or to keep up with the bigger happenings like this disgusting US directed coup in Bolivia.  America has no damn shame.

Bruce

Ukraine coming apart at the seams

While in Moscow two weeks ago I was invited to meet with Larisa Shesler, the Chairperson of the Union of  Immigrants & Political Prisoners from Ukraine.  Larisa is from Ukraine and had to escape for her life in 2014 following the US-backed coup in Kiev that was directed by the Obama administration.  While in Ukraine Larisa was a political activist and Deputy Chair of a left political party.  She was an elected member of the Area Council (equal to a state).  Several thousand former Ukrainians are members of the Union of Immigrants & Political Prisoners and now are living in Russia.  Here are some of her words from our meeting.

• Ukraine has become the center of world attention.

• Russian oligarchs do not want to lose connection to Ukraine's economy.

• It would have been a great geo-political defeat for Russia to allow US-NATO military bases in Ukraine. [Imagine the reverse if Russia or China put military bases in Mexico or Canada.  Washington would go ballistic.]

• Ukraine today depends on IMF and World Bank for financial help.

• It was absurd that Russia was involved in the 2016 US election.  Russia had no instrument of involvement.

• The current Ukraine situation could lead to global conflict between Russia and the west.

• There is a law in Ukraine against selling the nation's lands and soil, but the new President Zelensky wants to take it away. [Ukraine has some of the best farming soil on the planet.]

• Western [agri-business] companies want Ukraine out of the world food market - except for sunflowers and rapeseed (canola) oil.

• Ordinary people in Ukraine are absolutely against selling land - only five million people would be needed for farming, so many would lose their jobs, at least three times as many who would normally be working.  Vegetables, fruits and berries are now big crops - all could be lost.

• More than 80% of the Ukrainian people are opposed to sale of their lands. Monsanto today is the biggest company interested in Ukrainian lands.  [Monsanto wants to do GMO farming there.  Russia has banned GMO.] The IMF is demanding sale of lands in order to pay Ukrainian mounting debts - especially since 2014.

• When unemployment hits hard Ukraine will be the most dangerous country in Europe - that becomes a problem for Russia because of the instability on its border.

• Wise people in the west believe that Ukraine is best left in peaceful relationship with Russia - it's historic trading partner.

• China is about to stop tourism to Ukraine.  China has stopped issuing Visas for Ukrainians to travel to Hong Kong because some fascists from Ukraine have been helping to train protesters in Hong Kong. China thinks Ukraine is an instrument of western policy.

• Ukraine wants Chinese investments.

• Russia can't really do much to stop western sabotage of Ukraine.

• Russia has three million economic immigrants from Ukraine since 2014.  Two hundred thousand political immigrants have escaped to Russia from Ukraine since 2014.

• France and Germany want to bring Russia back into the fold.  Europe without Russian trade is a weak competitor with the USA.  That is why more EU states are pressuring President Zelensky to make peace with Russia.  Washington opposes this plan.

• The Kiev government is not safe from the Nazis.  It only took 2,000 trained Nazis to force the coup in 2014.  They have now 200,000 who have experienced war in the Donbass against the two republics (DPR & LPR) and they have no moral barriers. [Many of the Nazis have been trained by the US Army Special Forces from Ft. Carson, Colorado.  See here]

• Trump is not committed to the Ukraine war, western Europe is not either, but the Democrats still are.

• Russia won't let the DPR & LPR dissolve which would create even more instability inside Russia.  

• Neither side (DPR & LPR nor the Nazis) can advance beyond the current 'line of contact' in the Donbass unless Kiev is ready for great losses.  It is like the front lines of WW I.  

• Russia has given passports to about 70,000 Donbass citizens.

• President Zelensky has a short rope.  He hopes the west will push Russia to pressure the Donbass republics.  Ukraine wants to change the Minsk Agreements - Russia, LPR, and DPR say no.

• The US hopes Russia will bend like it did when NATO attacked and broke up Yugoslavia.

U.S. supported fascists take over Bolivia

(START AT 2:00, the discussion begins there. Pardon the technical issues.)

Pushback LIVE: Aaron Maté discusses the right-wing military coup in Bolivia with Max Blumenthal and Ben Norton.

Ousted Bolivian President Evo Morales has accused the US-headquartered Organization of American States of making a political decision in backing the right-wing opposition, saying the coup continues to wreak havoc after his exile.

Speaking from Mexico a day after he fled Bolivia, Morales said: "The OAS is in the service of the North American empire."

Morales said he “could not understand” how his military commanders could show such “disloyalty.”

“That confirms that my great crime is to be indigenous. It’s a class problem,” he said.

The exiled president said that after freeing itself from the International Monetary Fund, the Bolivian economy was doing better.

"We had big plans in the field of exports." Yet, the coup plotters “do not accept the nationalization of natural resources,” Morales said.

Built in Bath?

China is experiencing a breakthrough in high-speed rail. China Railway High-speed trains (HCR) close the 1,318 km distance from Beijing to Shanghai in just 4 hours and 18 minutes, reaching up to 350 km per hour. Since its high-speed rail program started in 2007, new lines have been sprouting up all over the country, which already boasts the largest high-speed network in the world by far.

A young journalist from Belarus travels for work with RTD on the new Fuxing, or Rejuvenation, train while a rural Chinese pensioner takes a much-anticipated pleasure trip on the previous generation Hexie or Harmony trains. RTD also visits a plant where the trains are built with one of its technicians and hears from a designer about the challenges involved in building a train for the 21st century.

Imagine if these were built in Bath, Maine at the current naval shipyard.  Instead of 'destroyers' we could build something useful that helps us get out of carbon spewing automobiles.

It's a fascinating video.

Coup in Bolivia directed by Washington

The Grayzone's Anya Parampil took over an Al Jazeera interview to provide a point-by-point rebuttal of major myths surrounding the coup in Bolivia and placed the ouster of Evo Morales in proper historical context.

You know this fascist coup was directed by Washington just like they have been trying to do in Venezuela - and like they did in Ukraine in 2014.

See a much more detailed video that digs further into the Bolivia coup here

NATO's foiled grab of Crimea

One of the people from Germany who attended the Crimea conference in recent days wrote me this morning the following note - asking me if I had heard this story.  I replied that I had but not in such detail.  Then I responded with an addition of my own that follows below. 

Two months ago I visited a friend of mine who lives with her family in Crimea all her life. At some point I found myself asking about the Crimean crisis [in 2014].

The father told me the following: his brother works on the airdrome of Sevastopol [location of Russian air force and naval bases that were under treaty with Ukraine since the fall of the former Soviet Union.  Russia paid big money to rent the facilities that allowed them to have 20,000 troops stationed there. Thus there was no Russian invasion of Crimea.] and in the most critical night of the crisis he got the message that within 10 minutes an attack helicopter of the NATO is about to land there. Within this 10 minutes Putin in person could mobilize a Russian helicopter that was able to arrive a few moments earlier on the field. According to him this was the most critical moment - if the NATO would have been able to land, there would have been war. Everyone was prepared they told me by the way, I even talked to house wives about this who said that they all organised themselves a weapon to protect their families...

Here was my response:

When I first came to Yalta one year ago my guide was taking me back to my hotel after a day trip to Sevastopol.  We passed by a huge apartment building, new, and all lit up.  I asked what it was.  She said, “It was supposed to be a NATO barracks after they took over Crimea.  But the referendum [to rejoin Russia] foiled their plan.  Now it is just apartments for regular people.” 

I asked her what would have happened if NATO had grabbed Crimea.

"We’d have war," she replied.

Maybe you can understand how proud the people of Crimea are that they quickly organized the referendum that overwhelming declared that the predominately Russian-ethnic population of Crimea wished to be reunited with mother Russia.  In doing so they also averted a war on their peninsula that today lives in peace and security.

It is at least obvious to me that the coup in Kiev, Ukraine (and the attempted NATO takeover of Crimea) was long in the works.  One should remember that it was during the presidency of Bill Clinton that the US promise to Russia (after the dissolution of the Soviet Union) not to expand NATO one centimeter eastward toward Moscow's border was violated.  (Interestingly there is a photo of Bill and Hillary on the wall in the lobby of the hotel I am staying in.)
  

Bruce

Sunday song

Yalta conference notes

The Fifth Anniversary International Conference: "Crimea in the Current International Context" began on November 7 inside the Livadia Palace, Yalta, Crimea.  In these same rooms Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin met in 1945 to discuss the post-WW II architecture.

More than 30 nations were represented (officially or unofficially) - I was able to catch this list: Austria, Cyprus, Poland, Norway, Germany, Japan, India, USA, Czech Republic, China, Greece, Israel, Belarus, Belgium, Tunisia, Palestine, Slovakia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Italy, Turkey, Armenia, and Abkhazia.

The place was packed with participants, observers and media.  Here are some of my many pages of notes from various speakers at the event. They are not posted in any particular order of relevance.

• We [Crimeans] don't need any proof of our rights.  People who think of themselves as the master of the world can't live with our choice [to return to Russia in the 2014 referendum].  Sanctions have a negative influence.  We are still not free to travel to Europe.  Every international delegation is a new friend of Crimea.  We seek peaceful non-violent changes.

• The US strategy is to dominate the world....fears the growth of China.  Some US analysts predict war with China.  They wish to break Russia apart before it becomes too strong.  Change of US president will not change their course.  Some Kissinger followers wish to neutralize Russia so that it would not support China.  Trump says our main enemy is China and that the US has to maintain good relations with Russia.

• The majority of Americans don't know where Ukraine is.

• The west tries not to recognize the violations of law during [the US orchestrated] 2014 Kiev coup d 'etat.

• The Crimean spring vote was legal and should be recognized.

• The US grab for Syria's oil is illegal.

• You should not look for enemies, but instead look for friends.

• Public diplomacy [a common topic during the event] should be used in order to circumvent the efforts of those who believe that a unipolar power should dominate the world.

• Public diplomacy is key to shaping public opinion.  Public tribunals were used during the Vietnam War to expose US war crimes and should be used again.

• Russia got religion through Crimea 1,000 years ago.

• When Russia is attacked it is usually through Crimea.  The fascists occupied Crimea during WW II.

• We are living in a transitional stage with the weakening of international law and international institutions like the United Nations.

• Russia is playing a very important role in the world today by encouraging international dialogue.

• US-NATO sanctions on Russia are having a boomerang effect on Italy's economy.  When market share with Russia is lost, it is difficult to get it back as Russia seeks new trading partners.  Why must a false economic restriction on Crimea imperil the future of Europe?

• Russia is a historical and valued partner of India.  We need to have dialogue.

• Crimea looked worse under Ukrainian control than it does today under Russia despite the sanctions.

• Railroad to Crimea from Russia will soon be opened lessening even further Crimea's isolation.

• Friends of Crimea in Germany think we are running out of time and we must work together to do environmental projects.  These kinds of exchange projects could lead to more bi-lateral environmental coordination.

• Commercial banks in Poland are beginning to question and threaten people who have traveled to Russia and Crimea.

• Many people in Bulgaria love Russian culture and language so we also care about Crimea.  Thousands of Bulgarians live in Crimea and they are local witnesses who understand the Crimean case.

• There seems to be a threat from the Anglo-Saxon world.

• I represent the Brotherhood of War Veterans - terrorism and breath of war we feel now - Lots of events are going on today to rehabilitate fascism, Bandera, etc. Russia should have its own veterans department in government because we might have more of them the way things are going today.

• We need a new Yalta meeting between Russia, China and the US.

• Where ever oil and gas is present the US military is there destabilizing things.  We don't want American missiles on our Serbian border.

• The US will lead the war by the hands of other countries.  If they want war with Russia, then they will use Ukraine.

• Sanctions on Crimea are well targeted genocide against two million people.  How do we meet this genocide?  Public diplomacy should be concentrated on.

• For us in Norway, the most important thing to do is to bring people to Crimea.

• As a lifelong Yalta resident, with family here for generations, there was never a doubt how I'd vote in the 2014 referendum to rejoin Russia.  While still under Ukraine's control they said we would no longer study Anton Pavlovich Chekhov in schools because he was a 'foreign' [Russian] writer. 

• We must reach out to environmental groups in different countries to share information and work together.

In the garden at Livadia Palace in Yalta

I had several good connections with people I met while at the conference.  Two in particular are of special note.
 
Costas Isychos from Greece was the former Alternate Minister of National Defence.  He was appointed by Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras in January 2015 but resigned six months later along with five other cabinet members.  Isychos told me that they resigned their posts because Tsipras betrayed the nation [he was elected as an opponent of neo-liberalism] when he agreed to an austerity package with the EU which further increased poverty in the country.  In addition Tsipras agreed to allow the US to dramatically expand its military bases in Greece that are aimed at Russia.

The other person that I formed a close bond with is Kimura Mitsuhiro from Tokyo.  He is a long-time activist and strong friend of Crimea.  We spent lots of time comparing notes about many foreign policy issues. 

As one might imagine I learned alot from being at this conference.  Taking in the collective experience and wisdom of those assembled from so many nations was a gift I will always treasure.

Bruce

BIW union calls for return of $45 million tax break for General Dynamics

The union at Bath Iron Works in Maine (builds destroyers for the Navy) refers in the video to the $45 million tax break the state gave General Dynamics a couple years ago.  At the time the union took a membership vote on the corporate welfare bill (which ultimately got cut from the original $60 million request to $45 million) and took no position because the vote was 50-50 for and against.

This is the bill that I did my hunger strike over and we had 100 letters to editor in papers across the state opposing the give-a-way.  It was a great campaign.

It's good to see that the opposition to the corporate tax cut is still growing.

Bruce

Talk at Livadia Palace in Yalta

My talk yesterday during the conference at historic Livadia Palace in Yalta, Crimea.  People from about 30 countries are represented at the event.  The conference continues today as we move to a university in Simferopol.

Note that the man introducing me is holding up our Space Alert newsletter.  They were very pleased to see our extensive coverage of our visit to Crimea in the last edition following our spring Russia Study Tour.  You can see it online here.

I took pages and pages of notes during the conference yesterday and will write them up ASAP.  I made some new friends and will be eager to follow-up on them.

Fazebook yesterday told me I had violated community standards for two of my posts and won't allow me to make posts there until November 14.  The two posts were about recent elections in Germany and a photo of US and Russian military vehicles passing one another in northern Syria.  So if you wouldn't mind sharing this video it would be a help since I can't do it.

Thanks to Regis Tremblay for making the video.

More soon.

Bruce

Still stranded in Ireland.....

My two VFP friends still stuck in Ireland and walking for peace.  Tarak Kauff and Ken Mayers.

Day 5 of Boots on the ground for Freedom - Malahide to Balbriggan passing through Lusk and Donabate #IrishNeutrality; #US Hostages #Veterans for Peace.

For over 7 months the Irish state has been holding two US peace activists hostage in Ireland. Their crime? They dared to enter Shannon warport on St Patrick's Day to search a US warplane. In the grand scheme of things it is a minor offence, but due to the vindictiveness of the State Prosecution their passports were seized and they are not allowed to return home until their trial, which could be in 2 years time.

In order to raise their case and the continued breaches of Irish neutrality for the past 18 years via Shannon airport, they are now on the second leg of their walk around the Irish Republic. They are now walking from Dun Laoghaire to Dundalk. The first leg saw them journey from Limerick gaol, where they were imprisoned for 12 days, to Malin Head.

The authorities claim they are a "flight risk". These two members of US Veterans for Peace say they would be more accurately described as a "death risk": Ken Mayers is aged 82, while the younger fellah, Tarak Kauff, is a mere 77. And as for not returning for their trial that is nonsense. They want their day in court!

A "Let Them Go HOME for Christmas" postcard campaign directed at Minister for "Justice" Charlie Flanagan has been launched. If possible please send Flanagan one of these cards. Soon Uplift will go online with the same message to Flanagan. Watch out for it!!

Russia discovers Tulsi - thanks to Hillary......

On Monday, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg made a statement that was interpreted as saying that Russia was once again interfering with American elections. But Zuckerberg didn't present any evidence of interference in the American election, and actually, there were no alarming statements about interference in U.S. affairs in the deleted groups.

This segment mostly covers the following:

Thanks to Hillary Clinton's wild rant about Jill Stein and Tulsi Gabbard being Russia's picks to run for president in 2020 V,esti News (who knew little about Tulsi) decided to find out and shared her story with their TV viewers.

Views from Yalta in Crimea

This shot is along the promenade in Yalta.  I moved today to the hotel that conference participants will be staying in which is just beyond the boat restaurant in the background.  Yesterday while walking along the promenade there was an Orthodox service happening just outside the church in the foreground.  The singing and chanting were quite special to hear.  A large crowd formed.  I've been asking alot of people what the difference is between the Russian Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church.  The answer has repeatedly been that Rome is basically allied with western governments and their political agendas.  People say the Orthodox Church holds stronger to the original Jesus message.  There is no doubt that the Russian people are far more traditional than their western peers. (Click on photos for a better view)

I walked for several hours yesterday up and down the promenade where many shops, restaurants and hotels are located.  I also ventured off into some interesting side streets and saw many older houses and buildings.  The streets are very narrow and parking is a premium.  I noticed that most people were not shopping in the very trendy and expensive shops along the promenade.  The only two stores I noted that were crowded were selling cosmetics and jewelry.  I imagine that before western sanctions were slapped on Crimea, following their 2014 vote to return to Russia, most of these shops were filled with comparatively wealthy westerners arriving on the cruise ships which no longer dock here.  Now most of the tourists are from Russia.  Some still come from Ukraine (I need to learn more about that dynamic).

The view from my hotel room of the hills behind me is very similar to this photo.  This extraordinary view surely has to be a key reason for Yalta's charm.

On the right side of the Crimea part of the map you will find 'Kerch' which is where Putin built the bridge in record time that connects Russia with Crimea.  Construction began soon after the 2014 vote to reunify Crimea with Russia.  Now tourists by large numbers are driving from Russia onto the Crimean peninsula. That means traffic jams and not many places to park but visitors don't seem phased as they appear to be having a good time here.  In the gold upper part of the map you can see where I was previously in the Lugansk and Donetsk People's Republics that are continually under attack by the Nazis.  It is interesting to note that in Canada and the US (Chicago, Brooklyn, etc) there are large enclaves of 'nationalist' Ukrainians who today are very active in supporting the Nazis that are shelling the Donbass.  Lt. Col Alexander Vindman (a Democrat) who has been calling out Trump on the Ukraine phone call issue, comes from one of these anti-Russian exile families which indicates there are many deep layers in this current drama playing out in Washington surrounding the US-Ukraine-Russia story.  Don't just swallow the mainstream media line on this - dig into the bigger Ukraine corruption story. One good source is here.

This is the famous Swallows Nest that is just up the road from Yalta.  It's quite a dramatic view from there, right off the highway that leads to Sevastopol (where the Russian Black Sea navy base is located).  It was Sevastopol that was the real prize that the US-NATO sought when they orchestrated the coup in Kiev, Ukraine in 2014.  But the people in Crimea were watching the madness of the 'Maidan revolution' on TV that year and decided they wanted nothing to do with the Nazis who forced their way into power with the backing of the US (particularly V-P Joe Biden, Sen. John McCain, Asst Secretary of State Victoria Nuland, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Sen. Lindsey Graham, Sen. Amy Klobuchar and more).  Thus their vote to seek reunification with the Russian Federation.

Bruce

Stop genocide of Palestinian people

Gideon Levy is an Israeli journalist and author. Levy writes opinion pieces and a weekly column for the newspaper Haaretz that often focus on the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories. Levy has won prizes for his articles on human rights in the Israeli occupied territories, and has been hailed as an "heroic journalist".

Levy has said that his views on Israel's policies toward the Palestinians developed only after joining Haaretz. "When I first started covering the West Bank for Haaretz, I was young and brainwashed," he said in an interview. "I would see settlers cutting down olive trees and soldiers mistreating Palestinian women at the checkpoints, and I would think, 'These are exceptions, not part of government policy.' It took me a long time to see that these were not exceptions – they were the substance of government policy."

In an interview, he said he doubts that any other newspaper in Israel apart from Haaretz would give him the journalistic freedom to publish the kind of pieces he writes.

War$ are U.S.

They broke the glass ceiling with a Tomahawk first-strike attack cruise missile.....

Gun runners with a mother's touch.....

American oil arrogance: Illlegal & immoral

Olga Skabeeva, journalist: "What the American presidents have been doing over the last, excuse me, two decades, under the cover of the necessity to urgently liberate this or that nation from a dictator and to implant democracy there, is now being done by Trump in an open manner: he said, "The oil in Syria is ours, and we will shoot anyone who disagrees."



US forces began patrols at oilfields on Mount Qarachokh near Derik in northeastern Syria on Friday.

Kurdistan24 TV

Sunday song

Arrival in Crimea - pick the 'forbidden fruit'

Despite the western punitive sanctions against Crimea I arrived here Friday about 5:00 pm on a flight from Moscow.  It was snowing at the airport as I left Russia's capital city.  When I arrived in Simferopol, Crimea it was sunny but cold.

I spent the night in the Ukraina Hotel in Simferopol, the same hotel our Russia Study Tour group stayed in last May when we visited the city.  On Saturday morning I had a meeting with one of my hosts to review plans for my time in Crimea, and the conference I was invited to attend.  He told me he is also working to arrange for me to speak at a local university while I am here.

After the meeting I took a taxi to the famous Crimean city of Yalta, about a two-hour ride.  The traffic was quite heavy which indicated that the new bridge Putin had built from the mainland of Russia out to the Crimean peninsula was in fact bringing many tourists to the 'forbidden land'.

The west is now punishing Crimean citizens for their vote in 2014, by a super-majority of  95.7 percent, to rejoin Russia after the US sponsored coup in Kiev, Ukraine.  The US-NATO were licking their chops wishing to grab Crimea (and its Black Sea Russian naval base) after the coup.  But they were thwarted by the people of Crimea.  The US-NATO claimed that Russia annexed (stole) Crimea but that was just propaganda. The mostly Russian ethnic population in Crimea had also voted to rejoin the mother country in 1991 at the time of the Soviet Union's disintegration but they were ignored.

As a result the US and Europe threw severe sanctions on Crimea as punishment for exercising their democratic rights.  My credit card won't work here, Crimean students cannot go to European or US universities like they could in the past, and tourists who used to come here by the droves on cruise ships no longer dock in Yalta.

I've now been here three times, the first exactly one year ago when I came to prepare the way for our Russia Study Tour last spring.  This time I can see big changes.  The roads are much better, new homes and apartment building are being built all over, and many more people (mostly Russian tourists) are on the street here in Yalta. The 2nd largest Muslim Mosque in Russia (being built for the Crimean Tatars) looked to be nearly completed in Simferopol when my taxi drove by it on the way to Yalta.

For the next several nights in Yalta I am staying in the Tavrida Hotel (pictured above) just a few meters from the Black Sea along the promenade area of the city.  Cost of my room in this historic and beautiful hotel?  Came to $52 per night (includes a great breakfast) with a small washing machine in my room, so I did my laundry.  The hotel staff kindly provided the soap and turned the washer on for me.

Yalta is most famous for the 1945 summit conference between Churchill, Roosevelt, and Stalin held at the Livadia Palace (summer residence of the Russian imperial family in the 1860s).  The aim of the big-three conference was to shape a post-war peace that represented not just a collective security order but a plan to give self-determination to the liberated peoples of post-Nazi Europe.  But due to western moves to isolate and demonize the Soviet Union in the post-war period, many of the hopes for the Yalta meeting quickly faded. The Cold War ushered in new tensions that allowed the US to build the permanent war economy and posture itself as the global policeman.  We all know how that turned out.

The conference I will be speaking at on November 7-8 will be held at Livadia Palace.  I will be addressing the topic of  'anti-war motivation, wish of the people to live in peace'.  I am looking forward to it.

Last night I was excited to meet fellow Mainer Regis Tremblay (also now in Yalta) and our friend Tanya Bukharina (our guide earlier this past May when we came to Crimea) for pizza.  They were also recently in the Donbass region doing some film projects so we compared notes about the experience.  Everyone is trying to predict what will happen next in Kiev when it comes to dealing with the two republics on the Russian border who are demanding their independence after being repeatedly attacked since 2014.  The key element in the equation is the US-NATO desire for war on the Russian border.

It's difficult to predict what Washington & Brussels will do.  Are they willing to risk WW III with Russia?  Will any sane thinking emerge in European capitals to help stop this march toward madness?  Will the American people wake up and learn that the Ukrainian 'adventure' is a corrupt and tragic mistake initiated by the Obama administration and now continued by Trump?

Only time will tell.  Meanwhile I will keep writing and posting about Ukraine in hopes that people will catch on to this great modern tragedy.

Bruce

The train from Moscow to the Donbass & back

Global Network Board of Advisers member Leonid Ilderkin escorted me from Moscow on the 24-hour night train to the Russian border with the Donbass and back.  Here are a few of my observations from the ride.

• Each sleeper compartment has four beds – two on the bottom and two on top.  A small table sits between the beds by the window.

• Each coach on the train has 1-2 staff who provide sheets, pillows, blankets, and towels.  They keep the toilets cleaned and vacuum the hallway and the compartments along the journey.

• The staff provides tea cups and spoons at the start of the journey and each coach has a large hot water boiler.  Passengers bring their own tea, sugar and food along for the trip.  Russians drink more tea than coffee.

• Most people in the compartment share food with one another and talk throughout the trip.  They stand in the hall way and look out the window and talk there as well.
• From the window I could view miles of green fields as the fall season is in full color.  I asked what was growing and was told it is 'winter wheat'.
• Also in each direction you see many coal mines - some still functioning and others not.  But everywhere around Lugansk there were big hills of coal mining residue from more than 150 years of mining - some of them appeared to be almost mountain like.  A few of the piles were so old that trees and other vegetation were growing on top of them.
• Labor leader Andrey Kochetov told a story about one of the mines.  On the very top of a tower is a big Red Star light from the Soviet days.  When a particular mine met its annual quota the light would flash.  It meant the workers had done a great job.  After the coup in Kiev in 2014 the Nazis came to Lugansk with tanks.  They had a day long contest to see which tank operator could hit the Red Star light.  The tower was riddled with holes from tank shells but they missed the target.  They did hit the homes of miners who lived in the nearby community and some of the miners and their families were killed.  The Nazis thought it was all great fun.
•  At home I take the Amtrak train to Boston, New York and Washington frequently from Maine and can testify that along America’s rail lines are huge amounts of garbage.  Not so along the Russian railway lines.  Like most other places I have seen in Russia there is little to no trash.  On our way to the Donbass one morning about 7:00 am we stopped at one station and I noticed women there sweeping up cigarette butts.

• On that same initial journey to the Donbass our fellow passenger in our compartment was a woman doctor from Irkutsk in the far eastern part of the country.  She was on her way to southern Russia for a warm holiday.  She offered to take my blood pressure and happily told me it was normal.

• We had a long talk about life in Irkutsk with Leonid translating.  She showed us photos of her home, grandchild and her garden on her phone.

• At one stop a hoard of local women were selling cooked food to passengers.  We bought a beautiful artistically decorated small loaf of bread with potato inside and a chicken/potato/cucumber dish.  Dinner for Leonid and I cost $4.

• On our return we left Lugansk on a bus at 5:00 pm which took us to the border control.  We were first in line to pass through Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) immigration but our two bus drivers disappeared for an hour.  I think they went for a vodka.  Once we passed through there, we then had to wait another hour to get into the Russian entry immigration process.  We got off the bus with our luggage and I was the first in line at the booth but the woman immigration officer could not find any proof in the computer that I had exited Russia just days before.  So, I was taken to an office, the same room where I had spent an hour previously on my way out of Russia going to Donbass where I had to fill out a long questionnaire.  The man in this office asked me a ton of questions about where I was going next in Russia (which is Crimea) and what I would be during there (speaking at a conference in Yalta.)  So, in all it took us three hours to get through both immigration services.

• We spent the night in a hostel just over the border inside Russia.  For two rooms in the very nice hostel it cost us Leonid and I $10 each.

• Then the next morning we took a cab to the train station for the return 24-hour ride back to Moscow. The cab cost just over $1.

Bruce

Ukraine is a failed state

Neo-Nazi Bandera followers march in western Ukraine

While in Lugansk in the Donbass we had the fortune to meet with famous writer Gleb Bobrov (Chief of the Writers Union and former Soviet soldier during their war in Afghanistan). In 2007 Bobrov wrote a popular novel called ‘Age of Death Born’ that foretold the coming wars by the Ukrainian government and the Russian speaking people living in the Donbass.  Here are some of his words.

    70% of the book came true – I had an understanding of the situation in the country.  The main ideology of Ukraine was nationalism.  They chose the most radical one.  Nationalism was integrated into all aspects of life.  No matter your ethnicity you had to be Ukrainian with only one language acceptable. 

    Bandera [the western Ukrainian nationalist who led his forces to join with Hitler’s Nazis when they swept through Ukraine during WW II and helped kill many Jews and Polish people] style fascism has taken over today with a full rewriting of history ignoring Soviet contributions and war heroes.

    1990’s ideology required all people to change their religion from Russian Orthodox to a western brand of the faith.

    Ukrainian diaspora, living in the west (particularly in the US and Canada), ran back to Ukraine following the collapse of the former Soviet Union along with George Soros money, grants from USAID and National Endowment for Democracy.  Their main objective was to begin the process to break ties with Russia.  This became the only ideology that matched the interests of the oligarchs.  Thus the ‘Color Revolution’ began many years before 2014.

    Prior the collapse of the Soviet Union in the Donbass nationality was not an issue.  In any country it seems strange to imagine asking people to change their religion, language, culture, etc.  The US-NATO understood they had to boil the frog slowly thus they created their color revolution plan.

    Bad economic conditions ensured people were just focused on survival and not paying attention to these behind the scenes plans.

    In the Donbass many factories were closed, including coal mines. By the time of the US directed coup d’ etat in 2014 there were no more military facilities open in the Donbass.  Army bases, barracks for soldiers, and military production facilities were all closed. [Thus, when the US installed puppet regime began attacking the Donbass in 2014, they had no existing military capability to utilize to protect themselves.]

    During WW I the nationalists based in western Ukraine cleaned out the Russian speaking people in their region.  During WW II they cleaned out the Jews.

    The US wants an unstable situation along the Russian border in order to divide and rule.  They want controlled chaos and to disrupt the independent sovereignty of the Russian speaking eastern part of Ukraine – the Donbass.

    Hong Kong today is another example of this strategy under way, this time to disrupt China.

    Ukraine will stop existing as a true nation.  It is becoming a failed state and will be further divided. The doctrine of Ukraine is self-destructive.  The core idea is to fight against Russia. Not able to be successful in their goal they will turn on each other inside the country.  Fascists are now fighting against themselves.

    The US pumped big money into Ukraine at the time of the Maidan (‘revolution’) in 2014.  [Hillary Clinton’s Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland bragged during a speech before an oil corporation conference that the US spent $5 billion on the Ukraine operation.]