McGovern: 'What were Putin's options?'

  

 

 

 

 

Judge Napolitano - Judging Freedom

 

Always good discussion with these both.

These are the neo-cons running Washington

 

 

U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright justified the deaths of 500,000 Iraqi children.  These deaths were the result of the absolute, all-embracing deprivations of the UN embargo.  According to Albright: "I think this is a very hard choice, but the price, we think the price is worth it."  (CBS's Sixty Minutes, May 12, 1996)

In 2012, President Barack Obama awarded her the "highest civilian honor" -- the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Have you noticed that no one is calling what the US constantly does in (Korea, Vietnam, Panama, Yugoslavia, Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Yemen or Syria) 'war crimes'? 

The US has no credibility anymore - except with most liberal Democrats and their allies in the Republican party.

NATO going global

 

 

Kim Iversen

Dave DeCamp is the News Editor for www.Antiwar.com and the host of Antiwar News with Dave DeCamp on YouTube

Africa rising up

 

African Diaspora News Channel

This is a really good video interview.

Ondiro Oganga reports on how the West is constantly trying to destabilize Africa for Western benefit.

Biden to send DU weapons to Kiev

 

Depleted Uranium impacts on children in Iraq from US invasion in 2003

 

The Biden administration is going to approve the provision of depleted uranium tank shells to Ukraine, the Wall Street Journal reported on June 13. 

After weeks of internal debate on how to equip the Abrams tanks that Biden has provided to Kiev, the White House is expected to agree on the transferring of depleted uranium munitions to Ukraine. 

Although some officials say that there are no serious obstacles to approving the shipment of depleted uranium munitions, others express concern that due to the transfer of such shells, Washington could be criticized for providing weapons that pose a danger to human health and the environment. 

In addition, the White House is still discussing the possibility of providing cluster munitions to Ukraine, among other arms, according to the news outlet.  

Washington believes that the delivery of depleted uranium shells to Ukraine will not affect the United States, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in response to the Biden decision.

"For the United States of America, this is probably not a problem at all. They apparently do not see this as a problem, because they believe that, since they are on another continent, the supply of radioactive substances that will be used in hostilities will not affect them," Zakharova said on the sidelines of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF).

Depleted uranium will harm everything, including the environment, the diplomat underscored.

'Control of the world'

 

 

"Control of space means control of the world. From space, the masters of infinity would have the power to control the earth’s weather, to cause drought and flood, to change tides and raise the levels of the sea, to divert the Gulf Stream and change temperate climates to frigid." – President Lyndon Baines Johnson (Democrat 1963-1969)  

Did Russia destroy the Nova Kakhova Dam?

 

 

Moon of Alabama

Propaganda will tell you that Russia detonated the Nova Kakhova Dam which was and is under its control. It thereby allegedly cut of Crimea from its major water supply and endangered the cooling of the six reactors of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant. The island as well as the power plant are under firm Russian control.

Well, so you can believe that. Or you can look for some facts hidden behind such 'news'.

Battles Rage as Ukraine Tries to Retake Russian-Occupied Territory - New York Times - June 9, 2023

    Experts say the dam, which was held by Russian forces, was probably destroyed by an intentional explosion within the massive structure. They say an explosion from the outside, like a missile strike, or a structural failure caused by earlier war damage and high water spilling over the top, were conceivable causes but far less likely.

---

Ukraine Claims More Small Advances in Counteroffensive, but No Breakthroughs - New York Times - June 12, 2023

    Engineering and munitions experts have said that the dam was probably breached by an explosion from the inside, not by shelling or other external attacks, and not by a structural failure.

---

Britain has delivered long-range ‘Storm Shadow’ cruise missiles to Ukraine ahead of expected counteroffensive, sources say - CNN - May 12, 2023

    The United Kingdom has delivered multiple “Storm Shadow” cruise missiles to Ukraine, giving the nation a new long-range strike capability in advance of a highly anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces, multiple senior Western officials told CNN.

---

Storm Shadow - Wikipedia

    The Storm Shadow's BROACH warhead features an initial penetrating charge to clear soil or enter a bunker, then a variable delay fuze to control detonation of the main warhead. Intended targets are command, control and communications centres; airfields; ports and power stations; ammunition management and storage facilities; surface ships and submarines in port; bridges and other high value strategic targets.

---

"Two stage warhead punctures external shell, then detonates inside target"

---

Storm Shadow - Federation of American Scientists

    When engaging hard targets, such as Hardened Aircraft Shelters or bunkers, the missile will strike the target at the estimated optimum dive angle, selected during mission planning. On impact the detonation sequence commences. The precursor charge will perforate the target structure, and any soil covering, and the follow through penetrator warhead will continue to penetrate inside the target to be detonated after a preselectable fuse delay.

Vienna 'peace summit' engineers weak final 'declaration'

 

 

Civilian peace summit in Vienna in the spirit of anti-Russian

    

Vienna, Tuesday, June 13, 2023

A statement condemning Russia was issued on the peace consultation organized by American and Western European organizations in Vienna on June 10-11. between.

From the final text of the declaration issued by the International Peace Bureau, which emerged from obscurity, even the passage in the original draft, which mentioned NATO’s “co-responsibility”, was omitted.

In their closing statement, the organizers of the conference demand an immediate ceasefire and negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Civilian diplomatic intervention is envisaged at their countries’ embassies, including the Russian one, while condemning Russia.

The group organizing the peace conference did not demand the opinion of the participants in approving the final declaration, nor did they initiate an open discussion about it. At the end of the “peace summit” it was read aloud, as if meeting with everyone’s agreement.

The representative of the Hungarian Community for Peace association and the Forum for Peace movement, knowing the draft of the final statement, announced on the first day of the meeting that he would not sign the statement or add his name due to Russia’s condemnation.

In his comment, Endre Simó asked: what kind of peace do you want if you condemn the one with whom you want to make peace? Civil diplomacy can only be carried out seriously if the opposing parties are not condemned, but instead try to reconcile. Persistent work is required for the parties to recognize each other’s legitimate interests, especially that they cannot assert their own security at the expense of the other party. He added: Russia has the same right to live in safety as anyone else. 

See the full text of his comment: https://bekekor.wordpress.com/2023/06/13/speech-by-a-representative-of-the-hungarian-community-for-peace-association-and-the-forum-for-peace-movement-at-the-peace-summit-in-vienna/

In response to the opinion of the Hungarian Community for Peace, Reiner Braun, the head of the International Peace Bureau (IPB), said: they do not want to risk the unity of their international coalition by dealing with the causes of the conflict, because opinions differ on that, but instead focus on solving the conflict.

________________________________________________________________________

My comment on this story:

Wow what a pitiful statement (below) from a so-called coalition that includes No to NATO led by the IPB

Not even a mention of US-UK-NATO in the statement - expansion, providing trainers, weapons, money, ignoring serious negotiations with Russia before the war began, etc

One must wonder who is pulling these strings at the 'peace summit'....I believe I know who they are and I am talking to people about them.

The war does not end unless and until 'peace groups' call for an end to US-UK-NATO funding and directing this proxy war on Russia. Otherwise we are rushing over the cliffs like lemmings!

And now according to Wall Street Journal Biden is ready to send DU tank weapons to Ukraine - how is that going to get Russia to ceasefire?  

https://www.rt.com/russia/577953-us-ukraine-depleted-uranium/ 

Insane.....and utter bullshit.

Bruce

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Vienna so-called peace conference statement

 Click on image for a better view

The message containing this statement was forwarded by the International Peace Bureau and Joseph Gerson.

U.S. daily steals 80% of Syrian oil

 

 

Syriana Analysis

By Kevork Almasian 

While Washington is lecturing the world on respecting international law, Chinese state media reported that the US occupation forces have expanded their presence inside Syria by establishing a new post 3km southwest of the city of Qamishli in Hasakah province.

While Syrians struggle to secure their daily energy needs, US occupation forces steal over 80 per cent of the nation’s oil each day. In this regard, Syria’s oil ministry issued the following statement:

“US occupation forces and their mercenaries,” referring to the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), “steal up to 66,000 barrels every single day from the fields occupied in the eastern region,” amounting to around 83 per cent of Syria’s daily oil production.

According to the ministry’s data, the Syrian oil sector has incurred losses nearing “about 105 billion dollars since the beginning of the war until the middle of this year” as a result of the US oil theft campaign.

~ Kevork Almassian is an award-winning political commentator from Syria. He is the founder of Syriana Analysis and is known for his contribution to the literature on the Syrian war.  

What is cop city?

 

 

Atlanta, GA - Hundreds protested at Atlanta City Hall to demand City Council vote 'No' on a measure to fund the notorious 'Cop City' urban warfare training center. Over 350 signed up to speak with many others reportedly denied access to the June 5 hearing. 

City Council approved the funding despite overwhelmingly opposed public comment - only 4 out of the approx. 300 speakers at the final hearing favored the project:  https://unicornriot.ninja/unicorn-riot-coverage-of-the-movement-to-protect-the-atlanta-forest/

The Israeli military for many years has been training local police departments across the US. It is strongly believed that Cop City could become a major training area for Israel to train US police departments in the same tactics they currently use against the Palestinian people. 

Once the US economy collapses, as many now believe is a certainty, the clamp will be coming down as the public rises in opposition to the Neo-feudalism that is heading our way.

Britain poses as Uncle Sam’s war enforcer

 

By Finian Cunningham

Strategic Culture Foundation

Reality check: warmongering Britain and the U.S. are leading the world to the abyss

[Don't forget the role of the BBC]

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak went to Washington last week cap-in-hand hawking a nefarious deal. Post-Brexit Britain is seeking a much-coveted bilateral trade pact with the United States, and to avail of Uncle Sam’s favor the British are offering to step up its role as provocateur-in-chief in the proxy war against Russia.

U.S. President Joe Biden and Sunak hailed the usual platitudes about their nations’ “special relationship” during the British premier’s two-day trip to Washington. Sunak added a new unctuous epithet, referring to the U.S. and Britain as the world’s “indispensable alliance”.

Topping their agenda in the White House summit was the conflict in Ukraine, Russia, China and trade issues.

Biden and Sunak unveiled an “Atlantic Declaration” promising closer cooperation on economics, security, military and artificial intelligence between the United States and Britain.

But crucially missing from the U.S. side was any concrete commitment to a new bilateral trade deal. When Britain left the European Union in 2020, the historic departure from that trade bloc was calculatedly made with the aspiration of securing an alternative special trading arrangement with the United States.

The Conservative government made the securing of a U.S.-UK trade pact a commitment to British voters at the last general election in 2019. Nearly four years on, however, London is no closer to tying itself to the American raft after cutting itself loose from the EU. That drifting situation has caused unprecedented economic and political turmoil in Britain.

Sunak is the third British prime minister that Biden has had dealings with as president, reflecting the unstable politics in Britain provoked by its post-Brexit tribulations.

Securing a trade agreement with the United States is a priority need for London. As Washington under the Biden administration adopts more protectionist economic policies, Britain is keen to obtain concessions for accessing the American economy.

This fraught juncture is what makes London’s role as Washington’s global henchman more dangerous than usual. In order to win economic favors, Britain is more disposed than ever to escalate U.S. imperial hostilities toward Russia and China. Those hostilities are impelled by Washington’s own imperial decline as the once presumed “sole superpower” and “global hegemon”.

During his White House meeting, Sunak pointedly presented Britain and the United States as the two main military supporters of Ukraine in the war against Russia. He also said that Britain would be taking a lead role in cementing the new military alliance – AUKUS – between Australia, the United Kingdom and the U.S. That alliance, which involves supplying nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, is explicitly aimed at confronting China in the Asia-Pacific. In an affected attempt to sound profound, Sunak said that security of the Atlantic was “indivisible” from security in Asia-Pacific.

 

In the Ukraine conflict over the past 16 months, Britain has distinguished itself as NATO’s provocateur-in-chief. While in Washington, Sunak boasted about Britain supplying battlefield tanks, longer-range missiles and training Ukrainian pilots on the soon-to-be-delivered U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets.

The British PM also obsequiously set himself the task of driving other European members of the NATO alliance to increase their military support (that is, buying Pentagon’s weapons) for Ukraine. Much to Washington’s delight, no doubt.

The war in Ukraine is reaching a more dangerous stage of direct NATO confrontation with Russia. The “undeclared war” so far is liable to become an all-out conflict between nuclear-armed states.

While Sunak visited the White House – it was his fourth meeting with Biden in four months – the NATO-backed Kiev regime began its long-anticipated counteroffensive against Russian forces. There were reports of NATO-supplied tanks being destroyed in the latest fighting.

Britain’s recently supplied Storm Shadow cruise missiles – with a range of 300 km, the longest among all NATO missiles supplied so far – have been targeting Russian territory. Some of the British weapons have hit civilian centers causing deaths.

London has also supplied depleted uranium artillery shells to the Ukrainian military, which Moscow has furiously condemned as tantamount to “unleashing dirty bombs”.

Britain has sent the biggest number of special forces out of all the 31 NATO member states to assist Ukraine on the ground.

Post-Brexit Britain is in a quandary of its own making. It has lost influence in the EU, the world’s largest trading bloc, but London’s conceited dreams of “Global Britain” have not materialized. Far from it. Britain’s economy and society are collapsing under its own weight of poverty, inequality and corruption (like Sunak’s multi-billionaire wife who doesn’t pay her taxes in Britain.)

The United States, despite all the rhetoric about having a “special relationship”, has not thrown Britain a lifeline in the form of a bespoke bilateral trade deal. Cut adrift, London is a dangerous entity (more dangerous than usual, that is). Economic duress is liable to make Britain more solicitous of Uncle Sam in providing its imperial enforcer role.

Perfidious Albion has already been instrumental in orchestrating several provocations to Russia during the Ukraine conflict. For warmongers in Washington who want to push a confrontation with Russia and China, the needy British bulldog is in a suitably keen condition to act as an even more vicious attack dog.

Laughably, Biden referred to his meeting with Sunak as akin to the first encounter between Franklin D Roosevelt and Winston Churchill in the White House to plan the D-Day invasion of Europe. The arrogance and delusional distortion of history are astounding.

“And I’m confident the United Kingdom and the United States will continue to lead the world toward greater peace, prosperity, and security for all,” Biden said.  

~  Finian Cunningham is a former editor and writer for major news media organizations. He has written extensively on international affairs, with articles published in several languages.

Sunday song

 

 

Talking peace with Russia in North Carolina

 

MB and I returned home from our two-week trip to Philly and North Carolina late Thursday night. It was a great trip and we have so many people to thank.

After we left the wedding we attended in Philly on May 29 we took the train to North Carolina and were picked up at the station by long time friend Patrick O'Neil who is a Catholic Worker activist. He took us to the home of our host in the town of Cary where a pot luck supper was held followed by my talk to the folks attending. We had a great discussion about the US-UK-NATO war on Russia using Ukraine as the hammer. 

The next day Patrick had organized a lunch event in Raleigh at a local brew pub and again I made a similar presentation as the night before. (The photo above is that event). Phil Duckwall drove about an hour to attend this talk and then took us to Hillsborough to a hotel where we would be spending the night. 

But that same evening Phil and his wife Sandy picked us up at the hotel and took us to dinner and then to the Unitarian church in Chapel Hill for my third talk in about 24 hours. Patrick also organized this one which was made special by the attendance of Ray McGovern (27 year CIA analyst and Russia expert) and Matthew Hoh. (In 2009, Matt resigned in protest from his post in Afghanistan with the State Department over the American escalation of the war.) 

Ray and Matt took to the podium after I spoke and contributed mightily to the conversation with the audience. It was a great honor to have them both there with me. 

The next morning Phil Duckwall took MB and I to his homestead in the woods near Hillsborough. There he raises ducks and geese and turns them loose in ponds on his land. They have extensive gardens and feed the wild deer that daily pass through their place. They are true nature lovers in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau.

Phil is also a scholar who reads voraciously and his library in his study is loaded with some of the most important books outlining the times we live in. Phil invited me last year to do a presentation on Zoom about Russia for a professional men's club that he was a member of. The mostly conservative audience was not very happy with my talk and drove Phil out of the club afterwards. So once we knew we were going to be visiting North Carolina I was eager to meet him in person. I'm glad I did. He's a great man who loves the people of Cuba and Guatemala and has a heart as big as can be.

Phil then drove us to Greensboro where we took the Greyhound bus to Asheville. 

Waiting for us patiently (the bus being an hour late) in Asheville were friends Ken Jones and Melody Shank (former professors at the University of Southern Maine and now retired in the woods near Asheville). We stayed with them for a week that included a handful of hikes in various mountain spots in the area as well as some great southern country meals at their favorite joints. 

Ken and old Florida friend Claire Hanrahan (now living in Asheville) organized my 4th talk in North Carolina on June 3. It was again well received as all the other talks I did while there. Claire and I were arrested together in 1986 in Titusville, Florida (along with 11 others) on Hiroshima Day outside the McDonnell-Douglas Tomahawk cruise missile plant.

 

Bruce and Claire in Asheville. Photo by Pamela Mumby

Ken and Melody next took us on a 24-hour trip to the Nipponzan Myohoji Peace Pagoda construction project in the Great Smoky Mountains. The major building effort is led by a Buddhist monk and nun who have been friends since at least the early 1990's. Actually the monk and nun introduced MB and I about 25 years ago.

Ken and Melody also drove us the two hours to Charlotte on June 8 where we took a flight back to Boston and then the bus back to Maine.

We can't thank all of our wonderful hosts enough for this memorable trip to the south. Maine is far away from that part of our nation and we don't get to visit friends down yonder very often. 

The reception at my four talks in North Carolina reminded me that many who didn't know much about Russia and the recent history of the US orchestrated coup in Kiev in 2014, along with the resultant US-NATO promoted civil war in Ukraine, are coming around. The 'official line' we hear from Washington-London-Berlin-Brussels-Paris is finally wearing thin as people slowly but surely learn the truth.

Just like Washington's 'shock and awe' attack on Iraq in 2003, this current proxy war in Ukraine was sold to the citizens across the west with a pack of lies that are steadily being exposed. The recent Ukrainian strike on the dam that has flooded legions of towns and villages near Kherson has turned into an ecological disaster as was Biden's blowing up of the Nordstream pipelines - the largest release of methane in recorded history. (Why are the big enviro groups silent about that one?) 

The US and its war mongering allies have become desperate full-blown terrorists as they continually escalate attacks on Russian civilians and targets that have nothing to do with war making. Even growing numbers of Ukrainian troops are refusing to fight as they are sent into battle without anything but a machine gun - not even a bottle of water. They call themselves 'cannon fodder' or 'meat' to be ground up.

The US-UK-NATO are losing this war that they chose to start and are getting more dangerous by the day. We should all beware of what these neo-con psychopaths (who refuse negotiations) will try next.

Bruce  

Update: Huge thanks to Carl Hartung in Maine who has fixed the blog loading problem. He found a glitch inside the blog program that was preventing proper loading.  At long last the blog is performing like it should!

U.S. would rather see the world end than lose its supremacy

 

By Global Times

Editor's Note:

The recent developments in East Asia, such as the détente between South Korea and Japan, South Korea's increasing hostility toward China, and the talk of a liaison office of NATO in Tokyo, have raised alert of observers, as the US escalates confrontation with China. What are the obstacles for East Asia to maintain peace? Global Times (GT) reporter Wang Wenwen discussed these issues with K.J. Noh (Noh), a US-based journalist, political analyst, writer and educator specializing in the geopolitics and political economy of the Asia-Pacific region. He is a member of Veterans for Peace and Pivot to Peace.

GT: It is hyped by some Western media outlets that an East Asian NATO that comprises the US, Japan, South Korea and even China's Taiwan region should be established. What do you think?

Noh: I think it's an act of madness. NATO is the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, neither Japan or South Korea is in the North Atlantic. They are all in the Pacific. NATO is a Cold War relic that should have been disbanded after the fall of the Soviet Union. But since then, it served and it still serves as the military arm of US imperialism and US force projection around the world. It comes into the Pacific to threaten China, and talks of preserving peace or upholding human rights, which is hypocrisy beyond belief.

GT: Japan is in talks to open a NATO office. How will it affect regional stability, as the US pursues confrontation with China?

Noh: It will destroy regional stability. Anytime you hear the word "stability" from the US media, they are really talking about destabilization. Anytime you hear the word "deterrence," they are really talking about provocation. It will escalate the threat. It's not just a liaison office, it is an office to prepare for interoperability between the US and Japan.

So it is very threatening. The idea behind this is to expand the theater of war and the number of forces that are pinching China. But it's an extraordinarily dangerous confrontation and provocative act, and everybody in the West would be opposing it.

GT: What are the obstacles for East Asia to maintain peace? What lessons should East Asia draw from the ongoing Ukraine crisis?

Noh: The key obstacle for peace in East Asia is the US. Asia wants peace. China certainly wants peace, but the US wants war. It's good at waging war. I'm talking not just hybrid warfare, greyzone warfare, technological warfare, trade warfare, academic warfare, legal warfare, cultural warfare, information warfare. It's doing all of that. But it is also preparing for shooting war, for kinetic war. It will go to war to maintain its hegemony. The US would rather see the end of the world, rather than the end of their supremacy.

As for the lessons of the Ukraine war, it's important for all the countries in East Asia not to engage in a proxy war and not to be provoked into responding. The US will do everything to cross every red-line to provoke a war. It wants to create a kind of bandwagon strategy against China and get the entire world to sanction China as it has done with Ukraine.

What China is doing is very important, because it has proposed peace and it's acting as the wise mediator. I believe that over the long term peace defeats war, just as the soft defeats the hard, civilization defeats barbarism, ethics defeats wrong. Taking the higher road and engaging with diplomacy and working for peace, China is setting an example for the world that the rest of the world will eventually follow. At this extraordinary, dangerous and difficult moment, it really is the fact that the US wants to trigger war. The US certainly doesn't want peace that China has mediated or ushered in, because that would be just as bad as losing the war, and it would lose its global legitimacy.

We are in a very dangerous moment, but the lessons that we should learn is to look at Ukraine and don't let the US bring war to your shores. We have to work for peace and not be fooled by the lies of a failing patron that is so intent on either having its way or wreaking havoc around the world.

GT: The G7 Summit was held from Friday to Sunday. In recent years, the G7's original nature of economic cooperation has weakened, but its military and ideological nature has continued to increase. What do you think of G7's role as an accomplice of war and economic coercion?

Noh: These countries are going along, not because they see China as a threat, but because the US is actually the threat to them. If they don't bandwagon with the US, there will be mistreated sanctions. In a certain sense, they are an unwilling coalition.   

The US wants to create as many gang members as it can to do its bidding to gang up against China, so that they can criticize China and say China is a threat to the rules-based order. It's the US usual propaganda. We can also note that there is a dissension within the G7 itself. France has made some noises about being more independent.

On a foundation level, economic cooperation with China is essential for all the Western states. China is the only major economy that's growing, and the only economy that has the capacity to bring these Western Atlantic states out of the economic morass. If they were thinking rationally and if they had their own interests at heart, they would be seeking to build and strengthen relations with China, and they would do away with this absurd demonization of China.

But to a large extent, the US is the ventriloquist behind the scenes, and the G7 largely are going to be capitulating and repeating the US lies. They will use every symbolic and rhetorical strategy to reinforce their hostility to China. That is a great mistake and a great tragedy.

GT: It seems that South Korea is tilting more toward the US. There has also been a growing negative trend in China-South Korea relations, as South Korea's president touched upon China's core issue, the Taiwan question. Do you think Seoul is jeopardizing its diplomatic balance and losing strategic independence?

Noh: It's true that South Korea is leaning more towards the US. The Yoon administration has put all of its chips onto aligning with the US. The key thing to understand is that inside South Korea's DNA in its history, South Korea has always been a US client state. The state of South Korea was created artificially by the US, by dividing the peninsula into two.

What we're seeing now is a reversion to the historical template. Yoon is giving the US everything it wants. Not long after he was elected, he came up with the South Korean Indo-Pacific strategy. This is essentially the US Indo-Pacific strategy. The US' pivot to Asia strategy is rebranded. It is a plan to prevent China from developing and even to encircle and attack it.

The US is provoking South Korea as a proxy or a pretext to escalate against China. Essentially, the key point is that South Korea does not have strategic independence.  

Those ‘Dam’ Russians… now they’re flooding themselves for propaganda!

 

By Finian Cunningham

Strategic Culture Foundation

It’s not the Russians who are perverse and barbaric. It’s the Western regimes and their Nazi terrorist front in Ukraine.

Western media would have its consumers believe that Russians are the most devious, perverse, and self-destructive people on Earth. Following a flood of jaw-dropping, biblical proportions in the Russian-controlled Kherson region this week, the Western media amplified the Kiev regime’s talking points, which is to say, the Kiev regime’s Western sponsors’ talking points.

The Russians are destroying themselves for propaganda gain, according to those talking points.

The giant Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant was spectacularly blown up by an explosion or explosions and its vast reservoir began flooding hundreds of cities and villages in the surrounding Kherson countryside. The nearby city of Nova Kakhovka with a population of 45,000 is being evacuated. Aerial images of the deluge show an unprecedented disaster with huge environmental, economic and social repercussions.

The damage from the dam’s collapse is catastrophic. The impact of displacement and destroyed livelihoods, businesses and industries will affect millions of Russian citizens. Kherson is one of the four former Ukrainian territories that voted to join the Russian Federation in referenda last year following Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine to neutralize what was then ongoing aggression from the Kiev regime towards ethnic Russians.

Of the countless consequences from the dam’s destruction, there are two main specific impacts of priority concern. The Kakhovka power plant serves to supply water for the upstream Zaporozhye Nuclear Power Plant – Europe’s largest civilian nuclear power station. Disruption of the water supply could adversely impact the cooling systems at the nuclear plant, causing its reactors to blow up thereby creating a radiation disaster. The Zaporozhye nuclear station is in Russian-controlled territory and has been under Russian military protection since the beginning of Russia’s military intervention on February 24, 2022.

A second consequence from the dam’s collapse is the threat to cut off supply of drinking water to Russia’s Crimea Peninsula where some 3 million people live.

It is obvious who gains and who loses from the blowing up of the Kakhovka hydro facility. The NATO-backed Kiev regime has inflicted massive damage to Russian infrastructure in the Kherson region and beyond.

Yet, in spite of the patently obvious conclusion, Western media and governments are trying to tell the world that the dam was sabotaged by Russian “terrorists”. British foreign minister James (Not-So) Cleverly and the European Union’s Charles Michel were among the Western politicians who were immediately trying to cast the Kremlin as the villain.

It takes an inestimable capacity for double-think and debilitating Russophobia for such logic to be articulated with a straight face.

This a repeat of the same stultifying nonsense that followed the destruction of the Nord Stream gas pipelines last September. When the Russian-owned pipelines under the Baltic Sea were blown up, the Western governments and their dutiful media immediately blamed Russia for sabotaging its own infrastructure. It transpired later that the gas pipes were mined by the U.S. military, an act of terrorism that was ordered by President Joe Biden, according to respected veteran investigative journalist Seymour Hersh. Months later, the Western media ignored or censored out this most plausible cause as a means to delete European-Russian energy trade for America’s strategic interests.

The same double-think by Western governments and media has been deployed over the constant artillery attacks on the Zaporozhye nuclear plant. For months, the plant has been bombarded by the Kiev regime with U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets. The unspeakable nefarious objective is to cause a nuclear catastrophe in Europe. The Russians are guarding the nuclear facility and have presented documentary evidence to the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency of who is doing the shelling. Yet, the UN and IAEA as well as the Western media feign a cynical agnosticism about who the nuclear terrorists are, trying to leave question marks that Russia may be somehow inflicting self-sabotage.

The same shelling tactics have been used to hit the Kakhovka dam over many months by Kiev regime forces. It was Russia that has repeatedly warned of the imminent danger of flooding if the hydro plant was crippled. That warning has come to reality, though the Western media are defying cause, motive and past record to invert the accusations.

The Kiev regime has claimed that Russia bombed the Kakhovka dam in order to hamper its planned counteroffensive. This week saw intensified efforts along the 1000-kilometer front line between Ukrainian forces and Russian-held territory. Moscow said it repelled the attacks with heavy losses incurred by the Ukrainian side. Those battles occurred much further to the north from the Kherson region on the Black Sea where the dam was blown.

Adding two and two and getting five is the usual Western media formula because, more than ever, this media system is shown to be a propaganda service, both private and state-owned.

The shamelessness of such media’s double-think is breathtaking to any rational observer. What’s more, the Western public can more and more see through the lies and preposterous pretensions of “independent journalism”. The Western media is a war ministry aiming to demonize Russia as barbarians whose level of sub-humanity, it is implied, is deserving of war and destruction.

In case you didn’t notice, such a mindset is consistent with Nazi ideology.

It’s not the Russians who are perverse and barbaric. It’s the Western regimes and their Nazi terrorist front in Ukraine. 

Really excellent interview

 

Alfredo Bolduc

 

 

Attorney Dan Kovalik who recently visited Moscow, St. Petersburg and Crimea shares his views. He is the author of several books, all of which can be found on Amazon.com.

His is an amazing story of a young, very Catholic, patriotic American who discovered the "Truth" on two trips to Nicaragua during his first two years in college. 

 

He's a very smart guy and good story teller.

You can find him on Twitter: @danielmkovalik

A peek into the future

A deep dive into the game theory and exponential growth underlying our modern economic system, and how recent advancements in AI are poised to turn up the pressure on that system, and its wider environment, in ways we have never seen before. Not a conversation for the faint hearted, but crucial nonetheless.

Daniel Schmachtenberger is a founding member of The Consilience Project, aimed at improving public sensemaking and dialogue around global catastrophic risks and technology. 

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction
03:21 Moloch Framework
13:20 Meta Crisis
27:52 Bad People or Bad System?
32:13 Capitalism & Moloch
40:12 Misalignment
52:35 Incentive Pressures Driving Misalignment
58:02 Moloch Driving AI Development
01:01:54 AI Risks Pre AGI
01:08:35 AI Accelerates Existing Systemic Issues
01:16:39 Social Media
01:20:09 Alternative Goals
01:25:00 Cooperation on AI
01:29:20 Call to Action

This video is part of a series on game theory, civilizational risk, and Moloch: the God of unhealthy competition. It is the bad guy of humanity’s story, and time is running out for us to figure out how to defeat it.

Primers on the Durham Report

 

 

  Antidotes to Silence and Bias of Mainstream Media

By John V. Walsh

The coverage in the mainstream media of the Durham Report puts another nail in the coffin of the Russiagate Hoax, if another were needed after the total collapse of the Mueller investigation. The response to Durham’s report in much of the mainstream media varied from silence to attempts to discredit the report.

As a result, many are confused about the Report which reaffirms the fraudulence of the conspiracy theories on Trump-Russia Collusion in the 2016 election concocted by the Clinton campaign. And the Durham Report needs to be clearly understood by the general public for reasons above and beyond the outcome of that election.

The narrative concocted to support the Russiagate Hoax has poisoned our domestic political life, undermined our civil liberties, provided support for the Joe Biden’s cruel proxy war in Ukraine and destroyed US ability to craft a détente with Russia. Biden’s proxy war now threatens to escalate into a nuclear conflict. The Hoax itself involved possible FBI criminal activities which can be turned against any of us.

Here are some quick primers on the Durham Report and its meaning. Two of these are videos which feature the noted journalist Aaron Maté, winner of an Izzy Award for “taking a factual, meticulous approach" to the Russia election-collusion hoax and for challenging press coverage of Robert Mueller’s Special Counsel investigation.

The first of these primers is a 30-minute episode from The Jimmy Dore Show on YouTube titled "Russiagate Was a Hoax! Says Justice Dept’s Durham Report." It begins with the basics on the Durham Report followed by Maté’s commentary. Dore is a smart, incisive comic who likes to play the fool and would probably love it if this episode was called "Durham for Dummies."

A second primer is a 25-minute segment from the GrayZone with Max Blumenthal and Maté discussing the Durham Report. Here we find that the Durham Report provides more evidence that the hoax was hatched by the Clinton campaign and involved the FBI. But Durham did not interview or subpoena those responsible for the misdeeds, including Clinton herself, and there are apparently no plans to hold them accountable. So Durham actually failed to pursue the responsible parties and falls short in that respect. This failure demands to be remedied in the future, because accountability is necessary to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. Blumenthal and Maté also explore the role of the mainstream media in peddling the Russiagate Hoax relentlessly for years.
 

A third primer is a superb, detailed article by noted author and journalist Jim Bovard of The Libertarian Institute titled "The FBI Vetoed the 2016 Presidential Election." Bovard provides more detail on the Russiagate Hoax. And he puts the FBI’s role in historical perspective from the days of J. Edgar Hoover’s interference in the 1948 Presidential election right up to the 2020 election and the suppression of news of the Hunter Biden laptop scandal on Twitter and other social media. The same Russophobia generated by the Russiagate Hoax was again marshaled against Trump in the 2020 election.

To conclude, in my view it is not only the domestic consequences of the Russiagate Hoax that are frightening. To muster public support for a war, the targeted country and its leader must be presented as evil and dangerous. The Russiagate Hoax played a major role in the upsurge of Russophobia that under-girds support for the proxy war in Ukraine. And that war in turn is leading to an all-out war with Russia which puts the entire world on the precipice of nuclear Armageddon. An understanding of the Durham Report may help to pull us back from that precipice.

~ John V. Walsh, until recently a Professor of Physiology and Neuroscience at a Medical School in Massachusetts, has written on issues of peace and health care for the San Francisco Chronicle, EastBayTimes/San Jose Mercury News, Asia Times, LA Progressive, Antiwar.com, Consortium News, CounterPunch and others.

Sunday song

 

 

Austro-Hungarian forum on neutrality in Budapest

 

 
Budapest, Saturday, June 3, 2023 (MB)

An Austrian-Hungarian forum consultation was held in Budapest on Friday evening, organized by the Forum for Peace movement, the correspondent of the Hungarian Community for Peace reported.

On behalf of the Austrian Coalition for Peace and Neutrality, engineer Wilhelm Langthaler gave an introductory presentation, followed by an informal conversation with the participants. He said their coalition sees Austria’s neutrality as a core national value and wants to defend it against those who have pushed for Vienna to abandon it and join NATO against Russia.

As early as 1995, when Austria joined the European Union, attempts were made to dissuade Austria from its neutrality, but its integration into NATO met with popular resistance and stalled. At that time, the population was approx. two-thirds of them protested against the plan, 90 percent are now against joining NATO and insist on the neutral status enshrined in the constitution, he said.

In the circles of the political, economic and military elite, they are still inclined to give up neutrality, which is why their social coalition draws the public’s attention to the threat to the peace of the country with more and more demonstrations. A few days ago, they protested in front of the Austrian presidential office due to the proposal of the head of state Alexander Van der Bellen that the Austrian government send soldiers to Ukraine against Russia.

Austria’s neutrality is due to the fact that in World War II the Soviet Union defeated Nazi Germany, which also occupied Austria. “Our neutrality rests on anti-fascist and Russian friendship” said Langthaler.

The speaker admitted that, according to his experience, the Austrian left, which is in principle on the side of peace, shows far-reaching passivity towards the cause of peace and neutrality.

The existing unipolar world order can no longer be maintained, the peace movement can contribute to the world order of confrontation giving way to the order of peaceful cooperation.

Wilhelm Langthaler expressed the opinion that the peace of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe can be guaranteed through neutrality.

A joint statement will be issued on the goal of Hungarian-Austrian cooperation and ways to achieve it, the correspondent of the Békekör learned.

Edited by Magyar Békekör