Renewable Revolution

Freedom & Democracy => Geopolitics => Topic started by: AGelbert on September 04, 2014, 09:06:44 pm


Title: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 04, 2014, 09:06:44 pm
Ukraine says ceasefire agreed with Russia (http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/09/ukraine-says-ceasefire-agreed-with-russia-20149381824680485.html) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fmritems%2Fimagecache%2Ftopstory%2Fmritems%2FImages%2F2014%2F8%2F26%2F201482614174260580_20.jpg&hash=644a6049d594ce1a9e138b8c27e3980ff22acd47)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 06, 2014, 06:33:41 pm

The Islamic State, the Kurds and Generational War (http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/09/03/the-islamic-state-the-kurds-and-generational-war/?utm_source=feedly&utm_reader=feedly&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-islamic-state-the-kurds-and-generational-war)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 06, 2014, 06:35:42 pm
Russia has a deep-pocketed economic supporter that is also a staunch US ally (http://qz.com/258660/258660)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 07, 2014, 05:43:51 pm
Why Do Some Leading Atheists Abandon Reason and Get Bloodthirsty About Mideast Terrorism?

The data shows it's just wrong to blame religion for the causes of terrorism.

http://www.alternet.org/comments/belief/why-do-atheists-abandon-reason-and-science-theyre-so-proud-slightest-whiff-terrorism

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-190514231611.png&hash=3bc9846657fc9bc9ae884686655431c49da87e02)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 07, 2014, 07:16:55 pm
Ashvin,
I disagree with your view that there is some equivalent immoral posture on the Palestinian side. There isn't. A son of an Israeli General explains why below. The point I am making to you, my friend, is to never relate Jewish Ashkenazi ethnicity with the religion of Torah Jews. Ashkenazis, including most of the ethnically Jewish neo-cons that run both the governments of the U.S. and Israel, are either atheists or Reform Jews. Reform Jews, as a childhood friend of mine explained, DO NOT have to believe in God. They ARE expected to go to their Synagogue and are STILL considered "Jewish". I went to their synagogue a couple of times. I even saw a wedding once with crushing the glass foot stomping fun once! They view Orthodox Jews like "way out there" fundamentalist crazy uncles that must be looked after because, after all, the aren't chopped liver!  ANY claim to Orthodoxy is BULLSHIT.

And some of that "Orthodoxy", by the way is Talmudic. The Talmud is THE modern day version of GOTT MIT UNS that "justifies" doing WHATEVER to get the real estate that "JAWEH/JEHOVAH or G_d as many write it"  promised "the chosen people". Talmudic "orthodoxy is COUNTERFEIT orthodoxy that ALLOWS a RELIGIOUS OATH to be taken to promise to LIE to non-Jews! 

The Torah Jews have ALWAYS been AGAINST a Jewish state!


But never mind all that. I don't want to get into a long discussion on the Torah and the ENORMEOUS differences and IMMORALITY (according to the Torah)  that the Talmud claims is MORAL and HONORABLE and BLESSED behavior.

My point is that this is about ETHNICITY and a FAKE "religious" justification for MIGHT IS RIGHT, PERIOD. Every thing you say and know about radical Palestinian education and behavior is, and always was, a powerless outlier FINANCED by war profiteering PROVOCATEURS (NOT religious fanatics!), BLOWN UP in media importance and PROVEN to be partly FINANCED by the Israelis in a clever half a century and counting propaganda effort to mendaciously give Palestinian BAD GUY EQUIVALENCE to the GENOCIDE that Israel is waging.  :emthdown: :emthdown: :emthdown:

As a lawyer, you want to look at both sides of an issue. Fine. Watch the video below. It is TOTALLY objective. NOTICE the date. NOTICE that NOTHING has changed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=etXAm-OylQQ&feature=player_embedded
An Israeli General's son tells the TRUTH!



I took the following screen shot and added some of the author's statements to underline the fact that there is NO WAY people should ever say, well, the Palestinians do this and that too! The terrorists ARE the Israelis, PERIOD! It's time for decent Jews to STOP defending State Sponsored Israeli Terrorism.

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120814232335.png&hash=5d4258165cca513686c4deebe41aee91fe62b415)

Ashvin said
Quote
As I said before, it doesn't make any sense to me to only point out the immorality displayed by militant Israelis and not also point out the immorality displayed by militant Palestinians..
Well, consider that IF the main provocateurs in this expansionist "policy" are atheist ethnically (mostly) Reform Jews totally divorced from religion and totally sold on Social Darwinism, game theory and 'survival of the apex predator' as the only "morality" that counts, the duplicity would certainly involve using the RELIGION card to inflame the masses.  :evil4:  So they do.

Without said provocation, do you seriously think that Arabs, who have lived in relative peace there for hundreds of years (at least), would, because the Israelis looked non-warlike, take the war to them instead? I don't think so. Do you? If the Palestinians won't get aggressive if left alone, how can you ascribe equivalence?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6656.gif&hash=2038f9b45636a93e5c0f4ee508ce29778fe9e9b4)

Quote
I know most people do not intend any sort of anti-Jewish sentiment by doing this, but that seems to be the practical psychological effect .

That's precisely what I am asking you NOT to assume is an unintentional effect  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-TzWpwHzCvCI%2FT_sBEnhCCpI%2FAAAAAAAAME8%2FIsLpuU8HYxc%2Fs1600%2Fnooo-way-smiley.gif&hash=b8545bd420b1e2f2c7b9f665d2093523e4ad2251)  from the Provocateurs.

WHY?

Because THAT is precisely what the game theory bastards that are running this "It's a clash of civilizations -I.E. RELIGIONS-" baloney are using to disarm Christians! It's the old "Israel is merely DOING IT TO THE PALESTINIANS BEFORE THE PALESTINIANS DO IT TO THEM" LIE.  The practical psychological effect was DELIBERATELY effected by the media mendacious and duplicitous reporting as far back as 1967! 

Ashvin, you KNOW how propaganda works. Your concern for an "anti-Semitic" (Ashkenazis and MOST Israelis are NOT Semitic at all!) backlash is exactly what the propagandists count on. Are you afraid Christianity will be demonized along with Judaism? Then WRITE about the ATHEISTS who are ethnically Jewish and their neo-con pals that have ABSOLUTLY NO USE for the Ten Commandments or a Supreme Being except as a propaganda tool. The exact same thing can be said of a lot of nominal "Christians" as well.

Thinking that telling it how it IS will open the door to a new holocaust or/and possibly undermine Christianity is an emotional response, brother. It's not logic based. We should VERBALLY ATTACK, not defend, those who USE religion as a devious front for war profiteering and genocide to muzzle those who fear a backlash. That is what the Israeli General's son does. That's what I do. That's what you should do too. 

If you think a properly run media would not clear up that mistaken idea that would spin off of telling the TRUTH about Israeli "policy" ("DA JEWS DID IT SO LET'S GIT EM' ") based on the FACTS on the GROUND in Israel, then it's because the propagandists have beat us by conflating the power mad goons running the mayhem with the Religion of Judaism. It's their cover! Stop letting them use it by claiming the Palestinians are equally at fault.

Proverbs 26:20  When there is no wood, the fire is extinguished, and where there is no troublemaker, strife ceases.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 28, 2014, 10:36:44 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kvyQ0vVwjqc&feature=player_embedded
Prima Facie Evidence   :o   >:(
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 28, 2014, 11:51:53 pm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xi5xg3CuILI&feature=player_embedded

Published on Jan 13, 2012

Comment. This film was made by Dr Niels Harrit to document the BBC interview he gave to the BBC as part their 2011 'Conspiracy Files' series; which was basically an attempt to undermine the 9-11 truth movement.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

It goes without saying that when it was all edited & spliced together Dr Harrit appeared to be simply another conspiracy nut & the interviewer a reasonable investigative Journalist just doing his job. This film however graphically shows the BBC in their true light & how they really conduct themselves away from public scrutiny. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil19.gif&hash=6eeb0dbc471743691793f5130640fdcbd1f77b5c)

There are many comments on here of the opinion that the interviewer; BBC Producer Michael Rudin is just some type of incompetent or even ill-mannered BBC hack. It is my personal belief that he is much worse than that. He is most likely is one of many employed by the security services as agents working at the BBC. The BBC is basically a propaganda tool for the state, irrespective of what stripe of government is in power their function is always to manipulate public opinion in order to maintain the status quo.

Don't forget to pay the license fee & enjoy the brainwashing.  ;D


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 29, 2014, 01:30:32 am
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mB2fHqnqZaE&feature=player_embedded
Three weeks notice for a 36 hour power down in the upper HALF of the WTC southern tower of the twin towers (where this man worked on the 97th floor) that took place September 8 and 9 of the year 2001... (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 25, 2014, 03:20:19 pm
CNN Edits Out RT Host’s Nasty (Agelbert note: but truthful!) On-Air Dispute with Christiane Amanpour


by Andrew Kirell | 3:23 pm, November 24th, 2014

Russia’s state-funded cable news channel is taking aim at CNN for inviting an RT host to discuss Kremlin politics but editing out her fierce criticisms of the American cable outlet.

In the Know host Anissa Naouai appeared last week on Christiane Amanpour‘s CNN International nightly talk show to defend her network against accusations that it is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s “propaganda war.” The conversation apparently took a drastic turn for the worse when the guest went after the host’s personal connections to the U.S. Department of State.

Ultimately, Amanpour told Naouai, the most contentious bits were unworthy of airtime and would certainly be edited out. In response to the edits, RT posted video of its half of Naouai’s satellite feed, showing her answers that were omitted from the final product. CNN posted the full transcript to its website in the interest of transparency; RT did the same.

To be clear: News outlets routinely edit pre-taped interviews — normally for timing purposes, but also to cut down on redundancies or rambling questions/answers — and so this is not at all an ethical scandal. As a pre-taped show, Amanpour makes its guests aware that they will be edited down for time. This particular interview, as you’ll see in a moment, happened to go very long.

But considering edits are a common practice in the news business, this story provides a fascinating glimpse into how and why words get left on the cutting room floor.

And when you compare the unedited clips to what actually aired on CNN, you’ll notice RT is correct about one thing: Most of Naouai’s direct criticism of the American network and its host were edited out for broadcast. At one point in the unedited transcript, Amanpour herself makes clear to Naouai that the personal attacks render some of the footage unusable for TV.

The first tense moment removed entirely from broadcast occurred when Amanpour suggested to the other guest, anti-Putin politician Mikhail Kasyanov, that Naouai admitted RT perhaps exaggerates the threat of neo-Nazism in Ukraine:


AMANPOUR: Is it more than exaggeration? And as such, is it a fair interpretation of what’s going on and what are the consequences?

KASYANOV: That’s not –

NAOUAI: I didn’t admit that it was an exaggeration. I said who are we to say that it’s an exaggeration as non-Russians. 30 millions of them were killed in World War II. I said, “Who are we to say it’s an exaggeration?” That’s what I said exactly.

AMANPOUR: No, you didn’t say that. You said they may – that might be an exaggeration, but then who are we to say that fears are exaggerated? I’ve got that on record. So don’t worry about it. That’s going to be played.

NAOUAI: Yes, I didn’t admit that it was an exaggeration.

AMANPOUR: All right. But you actually did and I’ll play it and you can dispute it afterwards if you like. But I will play it and it’s not a problem. It’s what you said.

Later in the interview, Amanpour asked Nauouai about another Russian channel’s error in covering the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 tragedy. The entire passage was edited out, but you can sense the conversation getting more strained as the RT host began to rattle off examples of CNN’s own errors:


NAOUAI: I have to point out that I don’t represent the Russian media, but RT. I know the image you’re talking about, of course. It should be pointed out also that that image was on the Internet for quite a couple of months – unfortunately this channel took the bait. They didn’t verify it. We did, of course. That’s why we didn’t show it. But to sort of condemn the First Channel for mistakes that we’ve all make –- and I remember very well Jim Clancy of CNN showing a video in Donetsk in May of this year of a supposed helicopter being downed by these anti-Kiev fighters. We went online; we checked the video. The video was from Syria. We never even saw a retraction from CNN. So it’s a little difficult to judge…

And the discussion truly went off the rails when Naouai brazenly accused Amanpour of being a state propagandist herself. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039) Check out this bitingly personal exchange below, from right after the host asked Naouai if it’s “healthy” for Russian audiences to get only one view from RT. It gets ugly:


NAOUAI: t’s an absurd question coming from someone that’s propagated the line of the State Department for over 15 years. I mean, it’s absolutely absurd.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)

AMANPOUR: Well, are you talking to me?

NAOUAI: Yes. Absolutely I’m talking to you. Who else would I be talking to?

AMANPOUR: Are you talking to me?

NAOUAI: Absolutely.

AMANPOUR: You’ve got to be kidding me.

NAOUAI: You’ve propagated the line of the State Department for over 15 years, starting with Yugoslavia and all the way into Syria. And now you’re doing it for Ukraine, essentially. Absolutely, I’m talking to you. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)

AMANPOUR: Oh, my goodness.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F165fs373950.gif&hash=ad797fcc08a061d3ae50ee49ccd9f3d517fb7496) Have you seen any of my reports about Syria? Have you seen any of my reports about Syria? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)

NAOUAI: I’ve seen lots of your reports and in not one report where you find you questioning the United States government and their policy. And we, with our Russian propaganda, question those arms to the FSA, question those arms to al-Nusra and other leagues. And now today we have ISIS.

Again, this was all removed from broadcast. According to transcripts, Amanpour began scolding her guest for not having an “adult discussion,” but Naouai simply responded that she’d like for CNN’s audience to be made aware of their host’s background. And that’s when the RT host invoked Amanpour’s husband, former State Department official James Rubin:


AMANPOUR: They are aware of [my past work], which is why they’ve been watching me for a long time. But listen to me, I would like you seriously…

NAOUAI: I’m glad they do, and I’m sure they know who James Rubin is, I’m sure they watch your work in Yugoslavia.

AMANPOUR: …as an act of research and as an act of education, go back and find all my work on Yugoslavia and all my work on Syria and match that with the policy of the United States government and furthermore, go back and watch what launched me and that was a to-and-fro with President Clinton challenging his policy on Bosnia and Yugoslavia. So Anissa, listen, I have respected you but I really don’t think that you should be doing this to me, of all people, on this – on this broadcast and on this satellite link. And you’re wrong. And I challenge you to go back…

NAOUAI: Yes, how dare someone tell CNN to check who their sponsors are, what governments they are working with! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)

AMANPOUR: No! No! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared002.gif&hash=764898cfbf07ef2c41ffddc5e93fa0e1bed41bae)

NAOUAI: How dare someone come on CNN and say that!  ;D

AMANPOUR: No! Hey, excuse me, no, no, no, you just said whatever you wanted to say. When you become ad hominem to me, that’s a problem, because you’re not doing it from a basis of knowledge.

NAOUAI: Well, let your viewers decide, Christiane. I think that’s the fairest way out of this debate.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b)

Amanpour insisted that Naouai watch her antagonistic 1994 interview with then-President Clinton before making such assertions, and informed her guest: “You can be sure I’m not putting this on the air, Anissa. It’s a personal attack.”

Naouai said she is familiar with the interview and accused Amanpour of agitating for war in Kosovo.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)
The CNN host finally ended it on this note, including an acknowledgement of the fact that she’ll have to provide a polite goodbye for the edited version of the interview:

AMANPOUR: Anissa, come on; you’ve lost me, babe. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. I really appreciate it. I’m sorry; I thought we could have an adult  ::) discussion. And we can’t. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ftissue.gif&hash=f8d05db8e11569882e0effbdd719e2b2e95c6785) Thank you so much. Alright. Now I have to pretend to thank you.

Watch the edited interview as it aired on CNN below (at link).
THEN watch the truth filled  UNEDITED  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)portion RT aired (at link):

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-edits-out-rt-hosts-nasty-on-air-dispute-with-christiane-amanpour/



Agelbert NOTE: CNN is part of the USA fascist propaganda machinery. Russia is no saint be they are spot on here.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F47b20s0.gif&hash=cc48c9af9d29b8836023c7db21103e52d1ed439e)


http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-edits-out-rt-hosts-nasty-on-air-dispute-with-christiane-amanpour/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 28, 2014, 08:04:49 pm
Vladimir Putin: Traitor to the New World Order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W85OnL4xtY&feature=player_embedded

Vladimir Putin is NOT the enemy of Patriotic Americans.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)

He is a burr in the saddle of the conscience free, cruel, war profiteering and planet polluting elite here and ANYWHERE else.

God Bless him!    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c) 
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 28, 2014, 09:58:20 pm
Part 2 of Vladimir Putin: Traitor  to the New World Order
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3boC2D-iviI&feature=player_embedded
The planet polluting elite are DESPERATE to start a World War.  >:(
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 07, 2014, 12:30:24 am
September 11, 2001 was the day the last piece needed to convert the USA into a Fascist Police State was put into place.  :(


 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-081114190023.png&hash=8248298f64b94ba91481961abaa5f6204a70c942)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080814213147.png&hash=8caa9e70560c86d7f1e8f5c50cee91c97d9859f1)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 07, 2014, 12:43:35 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsRm8M-qOjQ&feature=player_embedded
Loose Change THIRD EDITION! The first ten minutes are EXCELLENT!
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 25, 2014, 06:44:01 pm
Peace on Earth             (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301014182447.gif&hash=58fbc1dfd905f79b3d4bacde8e89a935c2b859ac)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F756Mjxxrvc&feature=player_embedded

SNIPPET:
Quote
And in despair I bowed my head: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2953.gif&hash=b84c0ae260f7ac760e54bcdc33d788c36faa07c1)
"There is no peace on earth," I said,
"For hate is strong and mocks the song
Of peace on earth, good will to men."
 

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-231214194953.jpeg&hash=78fbe513fec916946d0260a3d3c50b407ba26f4c)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 25, 2014, 08:15:19 pm
Homo Sapiens: A stubborn, stiff necked species that REFUSES TO LEARN.  :'(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oZtNlZmnEMU&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sq7Rw03yhl4&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZBYa_YGE5Y&feature=player_embedded

No, the Homo SAPS can't hear the bells a ringin'.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2955.gif&hash=ddc12d8bdb1bc63b7998a6b086b79a71b7bda755)
 


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 27, 2014, 09:09:34 pm
THE STORY OF THE YEAR 2014

The failure of the NEOCONs to get WWIII started through the fun and mayhem in Syria, the Ukraine (MH17) and the recent cromnibus "appropriations" to BUY oil and gas infrastructure in the Ukraine and FUND propaganda against the Russians there too is THE story of the YEAR because it ties all the loose and rather desperate "ends" the fascists are up to in their Machiavellian zeal to justify WHATEVER to finish the job of obtaining the Apex Predator "brave new"ONE world gooberment of fossil fuel fascism.

The fact that this blatant and barbaric bullshit has been so brazen has actually united the BRICS in a currency battle against the dollar.

That is another blow to the NEO-Liberal EVOLUTIONARY DEAD END Predators 'R' US. We should have been in full blown war hysteria right now. If THAT had happened, the price of oil WOULD NOT have tanked. The WAR was part of saving fossil fueldom's bottom line! There are several historical examples of a "war" showing up RIGHT WHEN fossil fueldom NEEDED ONE.

Also, the HUGE effects of climate disruption making the Renewable Energy transition more imperative in the public's eyes would have been swept under the SUICIDAL Main Stream Media rug.

Our ASS is hanging by a thread but DOOM has been postponed BECAUSE the WAR these bastards wanted DID NOT HAPPEN.

Of course, they will keep trying   :P >:(. But it gets more expensive for them EVERY DAY.   ;D

People are absolutely DISGUSTED with our government. And I DON'T mean just people like us.

Just check out the comments on a Ralph Nader Article at Counterpunch. See the HUGE number of up votes for conservatives, no less, that say we have a fascist government and have lost our freedom!  :o

Sure, they think that we can "go back" to when we had freedom. LOL! But the point is people REALLY are pissed. This is a huge obstacle for the Bernays style government Modus Operandi for obtaining a Causus Belli scam. GOOD!    ;D


The top guy on their hit list is a tough cookie. They had better bring a sandwich if they are going to take him on.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wYr_5gRMFRU&feature=player_embedded
Russia's leader pets a Leopard. The cameraman got a good scare!  :o  ;D

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4W85OnL4xtY&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3boC2D-iviI&feature=player_embedded

AND NOW FOR A GREAT CAT FIGHT!   :D :

CNN Edits Out RT Host’s Nasty (Agelbert note: but truthful!) On-Air Dispute with Christiane Amanpour   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F3ztzsjm.gif&hash=8e015ba6a93bc1ec93ebde8fd6b2daa19e537306)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6869.gif&hash=f94938471d343a09155d1f60eefacdb2ceab2457)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2mo5pow.gif&hash=995f9f6c08dcd54f18425f2bfbe138901cf052b1)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fswear1.gif&hash=87347674f9297191f3f8a447208170617da4caf6)



by Andrew Kirell | 3:23 pm, November 24th, 2014

Russia’s state-funded cable news channel is taking aim at CNN for inviting an RT host to discuss Kremlin politics but editing out her fierce criticisms of the American cable outlet.

In the Know host Anissa Naouai appeared last week on Christiane Amanpour‘s CNN International nightly talk show to defend her network against accusations that it is part of Russian President Vladimir Putin‘s “propaganda war.” The conversation apparently took a drastic turn for the worse when the guest went after the host’s personal connections to the U.S. Department of State.

Ultimately, Amanpour told Naouai, the most contentious bits were unworthy of airtime and would certainly be edited out. In response to the edits, RT posted video of its half of Naouai’s satellite feed, showing her answers that were omitted from the final product. CNN posted the full transcript to its website in the interest of transparency; RT did the same.

To be clear: News outlets routinely edit pre-taped interviews — normally for timing purposes, but also to cut down on redundancies or rambling questions/answers — and so this is not at all an ethical scandal. As a pre-taped show, Amanpour makes its guests aware that they will be edited down for time. This particular interview, as you’ll see in a moment, happened to go very long.

But considering edits are a common practice in the news business, this story provides a fascinating glimpse into how and why words get left on the cutting room floor.

And when you compare the unedited clips to what actually aired on CNN, you’ll notice RT is correct about one thing: Most of Naouai’s direct criticism of the American network and its host were edited out for broadcast. At one point in the unedited transcript, Amanpour herself makes clear to Naouai that the personal attacks render some of the footage unusable for TV.

The first tense moment removed entirely from broadcast occurred when Amanpour suggested to the other guest, anti-Putin politician Mikhail Kasyanov, that Naouai admitted RT perhaps exaggerates the threat of neo-Nazism in Ukraine:


AMANPOUR: Is it more than exaggeration? And as such, is it a fair interpretation of what’s going on and what are the consequences?

KASYANOV: That’s not –

NAOUAI: I didn’t admit that it was an exaggeration. I said who are we to say that it’s an exaggeration as non-Russians. 30 millions of them were killed in World War II. I said, “Who are we to say it’s an exaggeration?” That’s what I said exactly.

AMANPOUR: No, you didn’t say that. You said they may – that might be an exaggeration, but then who are we to say that fears are exaggerated? I’ve got that on record. So don’t worry about it. That’s going to be played.

NAOUAI: Yes, I didn’t admit that it was an exaggeration.

AMANPOUR: All right. But you actually did and I’ll play it and you can dispute it afterwards if you like. But I will play it and it’s not a problem. It’s what you said.

Later in the interview, Amanpour asked Nauouai about another Russian channel’s error in covering the Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 tragedy. The entire passage was edited out, but you can sense the conversation getting more strained as the RT host began to rattle off examples of CNN’s own errors:


NAOUAI: I have to point out that I don’t represent the Russian media, but RT. I know the image you’re talking about, of course. It should be pointed out also that that image was on the Internet for quite a couple of months – unfortunately this channel took the bait. They didn’t verify it. We did, of course. That’s why we didn’t show it. But to sort of condemn the First Channel for mistakes that we’ve all make –- and I remember very well Jim Clancy of CNN showing a video in Donetsk in May of this year of a supposed helicopter being downed by these anti-Kiev fighters. We went online; we checked the video. The video was from Syria. We never even saw a retraction from CNN. So it’s a little difficult to judge…

And the discussion truly went off the rails when Naouai brazenly accused Amanpour of being a state propagandist herself. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039) Check out this bitingly personal exchange below, from right after the host asked Naouai if it’s “healthy” for Russian audiences to get only one view from RT. It gets ugly:


NAOUAI: t’s an absurd question coming from someone that’s propagated the line of the State Department for over 15 years. I mean, it’s absolutely absurd.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)

AMANPOUR: Well, are you talking to me?

NAOUAI: Yes. Absolutely I’m talking to you. Who else would I be talking to?

AMANPOUR: Are you talking to me?

NAOUAI: Absolutely.

AMANPOUR: You’ve got to be kidding me.

NAOUAI: You’ve propagated the line of the State Department for over 15 years, starting with Yugoslavia and all the way into Syria. And now you’re doing it for Ukraine, essentially. Absolutely, I’m talking to you. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)

AMANPOUR: Oh, my goodness.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F165fs373950.gif&hash=ad797fcc08a061d3ae50ee49ccd9f3d517fb7496) Have you seen any of my reports about Syria? Have you seen any of my reports about Syria? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)

NAOUAI: I’ve seen lots of your reports and in not one report where you find you questioning the United States government and their policy. And we, with our Russian propaganda, question those arms to the FSA, question those arms to al-Nusra and other leagues. And now today we have ISIS.

Again, this was all removed from broadcast. According to transcripts, Amanpour began scolding her guest for not having an “adult discussion,” but Naouai simply responded that she’d like for CNN’s audience to be made aware of their host’s background. And that’s when the RT host invoked Amanpour’s husband, former State Department official James Rubin:


AMANPOUR: They are aware of [my past work], which is why they’ve been watching me for a long time. But listen to me, I would like you seriously…

NAOUAI: I’m glad they do, and I’m sure they know who James Rubin is, I’m sure they watch your work in Yugoslavia.

AMANPOUR: …as an act of research and as an act of education, go back and find all my work on Yugoslavia and all my work on Syria and match that with the policy of the United States government and furthermore, go back and watch what launched me and that was a to-and-fro with President Clinton challenging his policy on Bosnia and Yugoslavia. So Anissa, listen, I have respected you but I really don’t think that you should be doing this to me, of all people, on this – on this broadcast and on this satellite link. And you’re wrong. And I challenge you to go back…

NAOUAI: Yes, how dare someone tell CNN to check who their sponsors are, what governments they are working with! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e)

AMANPOUR: No! No! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared002.gif&hash=764898cfbf07ef2c41ffddc5e93fa0e1bed41bae)

NAOUAI: How dare someone come on CNN and say that!  ;D

AMANPOUR: No! Hey, excuse me, no, no, no, you just said whatever you wanted to say. When you become ad hominem to me, that’s a problem, because you’re not doing it from a basis of knowledge.

NAOUAI: Well, let your viewers decide, Christiane. I think that’s the fairest way out of this debate.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b)

Amanpour insisted that Naouai watch her antagonistic 1994 interview with then-President Clinton before making such assertions, and informed her guest: “You can be sure I’m not putting this on the air, Anissa. It’s a personal attack.”

Naouai said she is familiar with the interview and accused Amanpour of agitating for war in Kosovo.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)
The CNN host finally ended it on this note, including an acknowledgement of the fact that she’ll have to provide a polite goodbye for the edited version of the interview:

AMANPOUR: Anissa, come on; you’ve lost me, babe. Thank you very much. Thank you very much indeed. I really appreciate it. I’m sorry; I thought we could have an adult  ::) discussion. And we can’t. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ftissue.gif&hash=f8d05db8e11569882e0effbdd719e2b2e95c6785) Thank you so much. Alright. Now I have to pretend to thank you.

Watch the edited interview as it aired on CNN below (at link).
THEN watch the truth filled  UNEDITED  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)portion RT aired (at link):

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-edits-out-rt-hosts-nasty-on-air-dispute-with-christiane-amanpour/ (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-edits-out-rt-hosts-nasty-on-air-dispute-with-christiane-amanpour/)



Agelbert NOTE: CNN is part of the USA fascist propaganda machinery. Russia is no saint be they are spot on here.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F47b20s0.gif&hash=cc48c9af9d29b8836023c7db21103e52d1ed439e)


http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-edits-out-rt-hosts-nasty-on-air-dispute-with-christiane-amanpour/ (http://www.mediaite.com/tv/cnn-edits-out-rt-hosts-nasty-on-air-dispute-with-christiane-amanpour/)

 
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 28, 2014, 04:44:21 pm

IF we STOPPED supporting the system of consumerism, materialism, and hedonism, the system would DIE. They could print all the money in the world and if we (or about 40% - that's all we would need to bring the bastards to their knees) REFUSED to eat ANYTHING but what we absolutely HAD to have to get by (and less if they jacked up the price!) and REFUSED to use energy for ANYTHING except the bare necessities and ALL lived the MINIMALIST life style REFUSING to have cable, REFUSING to change our clothes more than once a month (so we wouldn't use as much energy washing and soap to wash with), REFUSING to travel except to get food and go to work (and then WALKING or riding a bike as often as possible) and REFUSING to work ANYWHERE that contributes to FEED TPTB, they would be FORCED to stop their **** wars,  24/7 dehumanizing of everything good about human empathy, celebration of brutality and ruthlessness as a "Virtue" of the "Apex Predator" or go to prison.

Unfortunately, the likelihood of everyone simultaneously taking a vow of poverty voluntarily is statistically close to ZERO.

However, there are fundamental thermodynamic reasons why money will stop functioning as we move along here, so the poverty will come to all including the Masters of the Universe.

Article Coming Soon to a Laptop Near You.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191456.bmp&hash=a239c2fd76d20d142f1c54b961e22ebd0d2a4808)
RE


RE,
The possibility of the near term extinction of Homo SAP is closer to 100% without 40% of us adopting a (somewhat less severe than a vow of poverty) Frugality is Freedom Minimalist Mindset that WILL get Da "job" done.

I think the low probability of 40% getting with the Minimalist program is, as low as it is, the only plan that has a ANY chance of avoiding extinction. It's a Sophie's choice type thing but the CFS math favors the MINIMALIST pain for the perpetuation of the species gain.

It's harder for people like you with big bucks to see that because, if you adopted a Minimalist Mindset, you would feel deprived and less special in world that has taught you that money, is not just the mark of success, it's USE in the SYSTEM is the mark of intelligence. That is Wall Street brainwashing baloney. But comfort is quite seductive, is it not? Are those seduced by this "money must be put to work to make more money" mindset not busy rationalizing away how they are supporting fascism and pollution with their life style? That River in Egypt is the Wall Street Bernays special that works a LOT BETTER to ensure our comfortable suicide than the whip.

But I hear ya, good sir. You are a fairly astute student of human nature. I have had numerous, but gentlemanly, discussions with you about DAT. I have noted that you have a tendency to view the baser condition reflex pattern (see yeast, bacteria, ring circles and so on) as far more predictive of Dunbar number PLUS any number above DAT Homo SAP behavior than cooperation, empathy, caring (and so on, in a rather long, but usually ignored by the Darwinists, list of sappy human traits that Darwin himself claimed were ESSENTIAL to our survival as species).

It is an established historical fact that most humans are more altruistic than they are greedy. To judge the entire species by the evolutionary dead end traits of the most vicious, arrogant, mendacious, acquisitive and ambitious members that become leaders is statistically INACCURATE. They ARE the NUMERICAL minority.

You are adopting the Wall Street attitude of "leverage".  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)  You are saying these LEADERS will drive the sheep off the extinction cliff because the sheep are JUST LIKE THE LEADERS (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2932.gif&hash=0eaec4791a5825821998245e7fcd7744b56557fe) and are dominated (in numbers above the Dunbar number) by the same baser emotions and condition reflex pattern of conscience free predation as the leaders. That is just not so, RE.

But I admit I may be wrong and you may be right. But I will NOT let you dance around the CERTAIN conclusion you MUST draw from your analysis, study and conclusions about human behavior.

If you are right :(, then we are TOAST. There is NO HOPE WHATSOEVER. We will go extinct. All your erudition and all your intelligence and all you grasp of world economics along with Steve from Virginia's plethora of graphs about this, that and the other will do nothing to change this sad trajectory. You would better serve Homo SAPdom, with our alleged terminal case of the Dunbar limit dumbass, by writing about unicorns and strawberry fields forever because that, at least, can make you feel good while you wait for your ass to be grass.
 
All the horseshit from the "genius" at TBP (Quinn?) is just so much methane. All the stats by the money minded monkey bean counters who's graphs and self important screeds (that at least 98% of human beings don't read) won't meant ****.

There is NOWHERE TO RUN TO if when the biosphere stops supporting human life. The biosphere RUNS, not on tooth and claw (that's a TINY subset of it!) but on trophic levels that EAT, directly or indirectly, SUNLIGHT. The overwhelming biomass is autotrophic (phototrophic). ALL the trophic levels above them are TOAST if the autotrophs buy the farm. THAT is the STATISTICAL REALITY of life on this planet.

Your proposal of a breakaway civilization of highly intelligent, caring, cooperative and CFS Dunbar groups is a nice thought that lacks the corner stone of a viable biosphere. No Viable Biosphere = no brave new Dunbar group. That is the only math that really matters. And that math takes all that talk about the evolutionary "advantages" of the "apex predator" and makes it look like the anthropocentric Wall Street wishful thinking that it is. It's a fairy tale!

IT DON'T WORK DAT WAY! It NEVER has! Spencer made it up out of whole, unscientific  "cloth" (Herbert Spencer's new phrase "survival of the fittest" alongside "natural selection" was first published in the fifth edition of On the Origin of Species, published in 1869.). You have bought that dog eat dog fascist fairy tale HOOK, LINE and SINKER. You have extrapolated that Wall Street world view to all of human history, past and future, as the prevailing human condition.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-TzWpwHzCvCI%2FT_sBEnhCCpI%2FAAAAAAAAME8%2FIsLpuU8HYxc%2Fs1600%2Fnooo-way-smiley.gif&hash=b8545bd420b1e2f2c7b9f665d2093523e4ad2251)

If Homo SAP is the "CEO" (i.e. the planetary biosphere's executive) because we are the only self aware tool maker here, the biosphere has a mental disease.

BUT, if the ones with mental disease are the pack of arrogant greedball crazies that temporarily steered humanity into suicidal behavior because MOST of humanity TRUSTED those lying sacks of evolutionary dead end "apex predator" **** FOR BRAINS, then the REAL evolutionary advantages of Homo SAP that include caring over conquest, empathy, altruism and so on, will, through peer pressure, not explosive violence, cure the Homo SAP disease and put us back on the path of HARMONY with the other life forms here.

Homo sapiens is a DERIVATIVE of autotrophic/phototrophic life biomass, NOT the Lord of the MANOR!

In Closing, enjoy this fellow Doomer that, like you and I, shares a realization that we are on the SURE path of Extinction if we do not change our civilizational trajectory. ENJOY!     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)
Quote

Smarter Than Yeast?

Are humans smarter than yeast? We will know the answer all too soon.

About This Blog

I call myself S. cerevisiae because I enjoy good beer and because the more I observe the depletion of planetary resources by humans I tend to agree that as a species we are not proving to be smarter than yeast. This is my little corner of the blogosphere where I will rant about whatever I need to vent about, from the sorry-assed Minnesota Vikings to the even sorrier-assed (is that a word?-who cares) politicians who fiddle as the planet burns.


Hello NSA!

Greetings to my readers at the NSA! I've always assumed you were reading all this stuff anyway so this weeks news is no surprise to me. I remember being called an anti-American dirty hippie for speaking out against the so-called Patriot Act a decade ago, now the same ones who passed it are crying foul? The fourth amendment has been gutted over the last thirty years, mostly because of the war on (some) drugs, I don't remember a huge right-wing outcry over that.

 Privacy is so twentieth century.

But the collapse will render it all moot.


http://smarterthanyeast.blogspot.com/ (http://smarterthanyeast.blogspot.com/)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 28, 2014, 05:07:35 pm
Karpatok said,
Quote
So am I, even if you can't see it. But thank you anyway. This is all true AG and the Perps need to be stopped and taken out. How do YOU propose it should and could be done. And please spare us FAKE DEMOCRACY and "WORKING WITHIN  THE SYSTEM" The system is dead and the JUNTA and CABAL operate for SATAN and the DEMIURGE OF DEATH. In such a demolished and dumbed down apathetic society, what can be the WAY?  PLEASE!                                Karpatok

These people are the problem:
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221014222208.png&hash=ae35994d8acc44c5bd0794f40f9d513715a7159f)

The solution IS NOT this:  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6348.gif&hash=9504ceda802b0d93a18efc33727d5044073ea428)
Although I admit it has a certain appeal.  ;D But as a student of history, you surely know that it just passes the buck to another clever "king (or queen) of the hill" that then proceeds to grow the tyranny cancer from the democratic beginnings. See Yogi Berra and Deja vu all over again.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

The hippies had it right in the 1960's. It was a workable, viable plan. That is why our gooberment stepped in and drugged them left and right to give them a bad rep with "respectable" people. The hippies were a HUGE threat to the MIC!

IF we STOPPED supporting the system of consumerism, materialism, and hedonism, the system would DIE. They could print all the money in the world and if we (or about 40% - that's all we would need to bring the bastards to their knees) REFUSED to eat ANYTHING but what we absolutely HAD to have to get by (and less if they jacked up the price!) and REFUSED to use energy for ANYTHING except the bare necessities and ALL lived the MINIMALIST life style REFUSING to have cable, REFUSING to change our clothes more than once a month (so we wouldn't use as much energy washing and soap to wash with), REFUSING to travel except to get food and go to work (and then WALKING or riding a bike as often as possible) and REFUSING to work ANYWHERE that contributes to FEED TPTB, they would be FORCED to stop their ****ing wars,  24/7 dehumanizing of everything good about human empathy and celebration of brutality and ruthlessness as a "Virtue" of the "Apex Predator" or go to prison.

If everybody VOLUNTARILY decides to be SUPER FRUGAL and live DIRT POOR even if they have the money or the gold or whatever to consume, then MONEY LOSES ITS POWER to undermine ethical behavior and morality in this country.

Yep. That is one tall order. But at the end of the day, TPTB are supported, as MKing correctly says, by every kilowatt hour we consume, every house we buy, every car we run and so on. Every gadget, every cell phone, every CD, every sound system, every cable subscription and even every internet subscription is a compromise that HELPS the CORRUPT status quo.

Well then, how come I'm not living in a panther cave?
Because I'm NOT a purist! I don't have the intestinal fortitude to take a vow of poverty like Knarf. Mea Culpa.

HOWEVER, if 40% of the American public had exactly the same "consumer" (see Orwell   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca) ) profile that I do, The stock market would have collapsed, the real estate market would have collapsed, the town budgets would have shrunk from low real estate taxes from people living in 980 sq. ft.  houses or smaller and there would be no mortgage industry to speak of because everybody's house would be paid for.

The derivatives, tranches, scams and so on in mortgages would never have EXISTED. The price of oil would have crashed in 2003 from lack of demand. The Fossil Fuel profits would NOT have been able to buy the politicians they bought to get the wars going and the oil price climbing and torture escalating AND SO ON.

The entertainment industry would be bankrupt. The hotel, travel and tourism industries would be bankrupt. Most automobile manufacturers would have had to shut down. Most mall and stores would have closed, including Walmart! The PC gaming industry would have never taken off. Less than 10% of the electorate would vote! The main stream media would be a JOKE to Americans in any and all surveys put out by TPTB (their advertising revenue would TANK). No printed newspapers would be in business for at least ten years now..

But the internet would still be there.  :-[

In the above Agelbert Frugality is Freedom Scenario, TPTB would fight back JUST LIKE THEY DID WITH THE HIPPIES in the 1960's. IN fact, they ARE fighting back by using every trick in the book to make us believe we MUST support the system (and the saintly, holy- and so on- TROOPS) that BRINGS us all these GOODIES.

What will they do if we all say they AREN'T "GOODIES"?  What will they do if they see us making the CONNECTION between consumerism here and destroying a family or a piece of planet there?

They will try to RIDICULE, DEFAME, DEMONIZE and, if that don't woik, IMPRISON the leaders (in that order. It's cheaper and more efficient that way, ya know.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Faliens%2Fhae51.gif&hash=8f03fbaf5bcbd8c47a5fc16e8cd148ffc66dda73)). And a few examples of killing the people making too much sense are in order to keep the rest of the sheeple in line, of course.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Faliens%2Fhae51.gif&hash=8f03fbaf5bcbd8c47a5fc16e8cd148ffc66dda73)

My response is, SO WHAT? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2z6in9g.gif&hash=771b084a0f186d9cc14f31defd98a6c90b69b84f) What have YOU GOT that makes me feel good about the traitors running my country and the planet into the ****ing ground? You've got NOTHING! Take your cell phones and distractions and shove them up your descending colon!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fswear1.gif&hash=87347674f9297191f3f8a447208170617da4caf6)

At which point TPTB do what they have always done when everything they try does not work. They go on a killing rampage with agent provocateurs starting it and the "new hippies" getting blamed. Works every time.  ;)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Faliens%2Fhae51.gif&hash=8f03fbaf5bcbd8c47a5fc16e8cd148ffc66dda73)

But those of us left who know their tricks will continue to NOT work within the system. The financial elite pretend all this is a distraction because they own all the stocks anyway AND the government AND the Military AND the health care (and so on).

And we win. We win because TPTB NEED to make us work for peanuts so they can HAVE their piggery and Planetary Pillage. They are slaves themselves of gigantic consumerism and hedonistic world views so they just cannot get it through their heads that people would rather live in misery than support a suicidal world view.

What's different know from previous history is that people, in the past, resisted tyranny as a matter of justice, morality, and common sense. But what they were after was a reasonable level of HUMAN COMFORT AND PEACE.

There WAS a future. There WAS hope for a better world. There WAS more patience and willingness to give the new top dog the benefit of the doubt that he or she would not revert to the Lord of the Manor BULL****.


NOW, we KNOW that human comfort and peace is IMPOSSIBLE if TPTB continue their fascist business as usual. NOW we know we ALL ARE COMMITTING SUICIDE by supporting the corrupt system.

So we are given a choice to have some relative comfort while we commit suicide or undergo a lot of hard times and misery of dealing with a government that hates us because we won't consume enough to support the MIC fascism.

The CFS types will tell us that agelbert's attitude is suicidal along with being anarchic and stupid. I counter that, as compromised as I am because I don't live in a panther cave  ;D, I am waging a war for peace and justice with my level of frugality that nobody I know, except maybe Knarf, is willing to engage in to battle the CERTAIN suicidal world view of TPTB.

EVERYONE out there buying lots of STUFF is helping destroy our species. And FOR WHAT?

For COMFORT! You are BRAINWASHED! You have been told that comfort is GOOD! It's good If you aren't degrading the biosphere and democracy to get it! At that point you become a Quisling!

The MKings will tell you that if you consume ANYTHING AT ALL, you are as big a pig as they are and have no moral standing. That's false. WHY? Because TPTB operate MOSTLY on marginal profits. It's the old make a penny here and there and it adds up through volume sales. If the Frugality is Freedom Minimalist mindset is embraced by 40% or more of the populace, it's a death sentence for the MIC fascist status quo. Peer pressure will take care of the inertia of change.

People with a lick of sense CANNOT be bought for a COMFORTABLE SUICIDE. That is what most people are, in fact, accepting as what they GOTTA DO TO GET BY! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgen152.gif&hash=d5b10968fe56c4cb95fae17cee3cb420a5f4e2da)

That's just plain STUPID, PITIFUL and, of course, aiding and abetting eventual HUMAN EXTINCTION.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Fviolent%2Fsterb050.gif&hash=7ab92003788aa87a5cec0e350c97a7bd23eb8b44)

So yeah, Karpatok, we are between a  rock and a hard place. I recommend as extreme frugality as you can handle and the preaching of said lifestyle everywhere you can along with berating the materialistic DUMB ASSES shooting themselves (and the rest of us) in the foot FACE with their unethical  addiction to stuff.

THIS IS THE BOTTOM LINE:

We must be willing to Starve to death, if need be, not for our principles or purity or purpose, but because TPTB are parasitic. Ticks cannot live without blood. They WILL NOT breed unless they have sufficient nutrition. WE-THE-PEOPLE are the host. Unlike the tick metaphor, WE are actually sticking a VOLUNTARY and UNNECESSARY IV in our blood veins and feeding TPTB. Pull that ****ing IV OUT of your arm!

IF 40% of us UNITE in a Frugality is Freedom Minimalist Mindset, most of us will not starve to death, ethical behavior will have a fighting chance of being what most of humanity embraces, our stupid view of the "economy" can be discarded along with the "might is right" insanity causing the pillaging of our planet and JUSTICE has a chance to exist among Homo SAPS.

In fact, it's our ONLY CHANCE to have a government based on CARING instead of CONQUEST, PERIOD.

Sure, a lot of people will die horrible deaths. The specter of dying of hunger or/and disease because you didn't work for the fascists or support their consumerist crap is terrible. :(

But the CURRENT PATH IS SURE to prevent the life of BILLIONS of humans in the future because there won't BE any humans in the future.

Violence is dumb, Karpatok. I possess the skills to do all kinds of horrendous things. If I wanted to, I could actually duplicate the grizzly scenario in one of those Tom Clancy books (without an A-bomb - I'm anti-nuke. LOL!). I know EXACTLY how to fly a huge airliner. I know EXACTLY how to fool ATC radar with certain transponder code settings that only someone who has programmed ATC computers AND been an air traffic controller will know about - And I would NEVER DO IT even if the devil himself, every fascist in the world and every corrupt and murdering MIC bastard were all gathered in a stadium for an easy hit BECAUSE they will be REPLACED the next day and they will MULTIPLY. Violence BREEDS VIOLENCE. I want LESS VIOLENCE. I want MORE LIFE, not more DEATH, COMPRENDE, AMIGA?

The fascists FEED on DEATH as well as our habits.

We must all make a choice. I have made mine. That is, to the best of my ability, to live the most frugal minimalist life possible to starve TPTB that feed on me. If I die in the process, I'll die knowing that, even though I might have lived longer if I had participated in a bit more fun in my dotage, had everyone emulated my lifestyle, humanity would not have gone extinct. As you see, I really am not misanthropic, even though that is the way a act sometimes.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)

I repeat, I have made my choice.
I ENJOY the fact that I live small and spend little. I do not hunger for this, that or the other (except maybe Volt   ;D (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85) ). Yeah, I'm a Christian. And that has a LOT to do with my supreme disgust with materialism. But this is NOT about religion. I do not think God is going to do JACK SH IT to keep us from reaping what we have sown. We've got to figure this out or perish, period.

Anyone that follows the Frugality is Freedom Minimalist Mindset pattern should sell ALL their stock, move to the smallest place they can possibly live in (and so on as mentioned above). They must STOP participating in the world of money as much as possible by severely downsizing their expenses regardless of their buying power. Said person must disparage demonize, criticize, mock and take every opportunity to embarrass worshippers of pecuniary wealth with hard, direct and angry vitriol about the fact that these people are aiding and abetting civilizational suicide.

My choice is not popular. So if you take it, you will not be popular. But you will be doing the right thing.

Any other choice, from violence to clever prose about Maslow's hierarchy and whatever that leads to doing zip to actually change the suicidal trajectory we are on is wrong.

I urge you to make the right choice.

For anyone reading this that makes the wrong choice (comfortable suicide leading to eventual human extinction), I have a question for you:

Do you feel lucky?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7Nci-GVuHE
&feature=player_embedded

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080814213147.png&hash=8caa9e70560c86d7f1e8f5c50cee91c97d9859f1)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 29, 2015, 01:32:50 am
‘We Are Going to Destroy the Greek Oligarchy System’

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.websmileys.com%2Fsm%2Fviolent%2Fsterb029.gif&hash=7a43a0c106eab798f7ba6133dc5cc550647a03d2)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-290115012653.png&hash=eafc68e2a3cf14dd593c20786c6ca7968c95fa38)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Flooksmiley.gif&hash=2fa679c2bf50092b12a1301928cb338275c3ba54)


http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/we_are_going_to_destroy_the_greek_oligarchy_system_20150125

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 29, 2015, 02:59:55 am
Quote
“Syriza succeeded in selling an illusion that Greece can end the reforms and stop paying the debt, and still stay in the euro. This is impossible. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F165fs373950.gif&hash=ad797fcc08a061d3ae50ee49ccd9f3d517fb7496)  If they do that the European Central Bank cannot accept collateral guaranteed by the Greek government,” he said.


Oh yeah???   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fcowboypistol.gif&hash=2dc97f743dffca22404e6e4e0822765e60b33f38)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-290115024328.png&hash=abcd9101ba20b434e800736150fc7f80e441ef8b)
http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/we_are_going_to_destroy_the_greek_oligarchy_system_20150125 (http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/we_are_going_to_destroy_the_greek_oligarchy_system_20150125)
(https://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/p9047017-030close-up.jpg)


It's SHOW TIME! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F121.gif&hash=f7d858a59b651e347928fd577c6d8c1e13a0fbf9)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 17, 2015, 07:33:12 pm
GO said (about ISIS),
Quote
See what I meant? Can you feel it yet? Sense how fast they are moving, consolidating their gains and striking with renewed strength and vigor?

The musical director for David, a fellow called Asaph, was 3000 years ahead of you.  8)

Quote
He wrote more of the Bible than Peter, James, Jude, Jonah, Amos, Micah, Joel, Malachi, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Nahum, Haggai, or Obadiah. Interestingly enough, if we take the time to dig it out, the Bible tells more about Asaph's life than it tells us about any other author of scripture except Moses, David, Samuel, and perhaps Isaiah, Hosea, and Jeremiah.  :o

We know the times Asaph lived in (circa 1020 - 920 BC), from David's reign, through Solomon's to Rehoboam's.
http://www.hfbcbiblestudy.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=482

Asaph was VERY angry and depressed about just about everything turning to EVIL in his lifetime. In Psalm 73 he complains bitterly about how the Godless rich, who think God does not see their evil works, continue to prosper while good people continue to get the shaft.

This is just part of the EVIL that he lived through:

Quote
After Solomon's dedication of the Temple, Asaph saw Israel's "golden age" turn into something quite apart from what he expected. After a promising beginning, Solomon turned his back on God and pursued power, wealth, luxury, and human wisdom,[3] as well as worship of other gods.[4]

To finance these pursuits the people were oppressed with slavery [5] and taxes.[6] Asaph saw Solomon become a wicked man who entrusted the administration of his Kingdom to other wicked men.

There is good reason to believe (see Appendix 5) that during Solomon's reign, Asaph's brother Zechariah [7] was assassinated in the Temple by Solomon's agents. Neither Asaph nor Zechariah would keep silent about Solomon's wickedness. Zechariah paid the ultimate price.

http://www.hfbcbiblestudy.org/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=482

Nothing new under sun, old chum. Evil is as evil does. 8)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280914174538.jpeg&hash=bcf9cf2d12c22ea43304cdaf580bffa32387186d)






Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 17, 2015, 07:37:03 pm
Surly said,
Quote
Putin is going all over the world trying to make friends at a time when we are circling the world p issing people off.

Yep. Smart cookie.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)

Russian kitty:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260115151349.png&hash=7b160dc8205d901e8ec112869560f7ae85212458)


World's impression of USA:


 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170614183651.jpeg&hash=509e252f0694b87846df8119a4e16aeb0b667424)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2015, 05:09:45 pm
Surly,
If we are going to define evil in terms of malice and aforethought (mens rea), our country is simply unmatched by any other in the history of the PLANET!

IF said mens rea does not count unless the crime of willful assault, torture, and death is perpetrated, the weight of the responsibility is on the party or parties committing most of the crimes, is it not?

What role does the MASSIVE FUNDING of these criminals by our mens rea fascists play in GO's evil rate increase calculus is a concern of mine. I think it plays too small a role. Hence my view that he lacks perspective. But there is more.

When this discussion devolved into counting dead bodies as the standard for evil behavior, it lost even more proper perspective.

UB and RE both state that , no ticket, no laundry, right? The "despicable pieces of shi t", as Ashvin correctly describes them, DO what they DO because they are FUNDED to do it. Of course they are evil. Of course they enjoy what they do. But they are FAR outnumbered by the barbaric pieces of shi t making up a certain percentage of OUR boots on the ground and OUR police officers in every large city and many middle sized ones in the USA!

And then there is the ACTUAL organized criminal element in this country. Ask your cop family about the kind of world class butchery that goes on in every American large city every day by these ****. COUNT the bodies. SUM UP the tortured, **** and abused people of all ages from the aged to babies in all sorts of EVIL imaginative ways RIGHT HERE!

The fact that some of us, myself included, are highly uncomfortable with being in the crosshairs of a terrorist group that butchers Christians is not grounds for establishing that an evil presence is growing on the planet. Just because I am the target, it does NOT mean I am free to assume an increase in evil, does it?

Finally, just counting butchered bodies from accidents where allegedly NO EVIL agency was involved, FAR exceeds the pain of torture, decapitation, brutal dismembering, maiming and so on that the terrorists inflict. Just ask Our EMT Fox about the massive pain and agony accident vitims with crushed parts or dismemberment suffer from due to thousands and thousands and thousands of car crashes in this country every year. 

The entire discussion of ISIS, MISIS, WISIS or whatever name the papers come up with for dial a terrorist organization out there that we should shake in our boots about, what they do, and when they do it, is NOTHING compared to the number of deaths that occur in THIS country (one person is killed by a drunk driver every 53 minutes). Then there are the 125,000 average deaths per year by LEGAL prescription drugs.

I have my view of what proper perspective on the level of Homo SAP evil in this planet is as CAUSED by the planning, funding and execution of evil acts, as well as the planning for, and funding of, criminally negligent behavior by our government that results in thousands of needless deaths. I consider that evil too.

That is my perspective. I do not see it increasing.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2015, 05:16:52 pm
Thank you Surly and GO for responding in gentlemanly Diner mode.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e) 

I try to be polite here but, beneath the surface, if I let loose, my tirades would leave Karpatok in the dust! Early on, she recognized me as a potential freedom fighter and used all her considerable rhetorical skills and vocabulary to try to shame me into going out there and kicking some empire ass. Don't believe for a second that I haven't considered it. But Christianity, the real kind, does not justify tit for tat, period. Raulito figured that out towards the end.

Here, From Chomsky, is another reason I have very little patience for claims of an evil encroaching presence in the world (NOBODY has one upped the USA YET, GO).

Chomsky on the REALLY evil empire.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.sodahead.com%2Fpolls%2F000370273%2Fpolls_Smiley_Angry_256x256_3451_356175_answer_4_xlarge.png&hash=15577651daa4c35ff4d6b26217f99db6ebfde0b3)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeaqOfvPiMc&feature=player_embedded


My Cousin was a great actor. But he was every bit as angered by, and FAR MORE KNOWLEDGEABLE of, than most people in the USA in general, and the Doomstead Diner in particular, of the LEVEL of EVIL in this world and WHO is RESPONSIBLE for it.

THAT is what is just below the surface in Agelbert. Raulito reconverted back to Catholicism after doing the movie Romero. He went from Catholic as a child to Buddhist for most of his life and Catholic at the end. You can claim it was due to his method acting technique. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2932.gif&hash=0eaec4791a5825821998245e7fcd7744b56557fe)  I suspect the IN YOUR FACE reality of massive evil in this world had something to do with it, PARTICULARY what PREDATORY CAPITALIST TERRORISM FUNDED BY OUR TAX DOLLARS visited on El Salvador. The Crusades, the Inquisition and ISIS butchery all amount to PEANUTS compared with the BUTCHERY in Latin America by OUR GOONS.

When you are a person that walks the talk, like Raulito, it gets REAL HARD to pretend there IS NO GOOD AND NO EVIL EITHER as the core beliefs of monism require.  He fought ALL HIS LIFE to live his principles through good deeds and millions of dollars in funding nutrition programs for the poor, not just to FEED the poor, but to get them a job and/or some land to FEED THEMSELVES, freedom movements for the politically oppressed and the defense of the environment in places like Brazil where Mking's pals KILL people for defending the rainforest,

Monism and Ethics

Quote
In accounting for the origin of evil, a problem which, though it belongs to metaphysics, has important bearings on ethical questions, some philosophers have adopted a Dualistic doctrine and explained that good and evil originate from two distinct principles, the one supremely good, the other completely and absolutely evil.

This was the doctrine of the ancient Persians, from whom it was borrowed by Manes, the founder of the Manichean sect.

Opposed to this is the Monistic view, that God is indeed the cause of all that is good in the universe, and that evil is not to be assigned to any supreme cause distinct from God. Whatever explanation be given of the existence of evil in the world, it is maintained that a supreme principle of evil is utterly impossible and even inconceivable.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10483a.htm (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10483a.htm)

Monism is magical thinking in a world where evil agency exists that is opposed to good, and MUST BE fought! Karpatok believes that spiritual warfare is magical thinking. I beg to differ. I engage in it RIGHT HERE (and other places  ;)). And I will die doing it because it is the most efficacious way to FIGHT EVIL, PERIOD.

GO, believe it or not, I have a LOT more common ground with you  than you are aware of. Thomas Jefferson said that if you have a government powerful enough to protect you from all enemies and provide for your every need, you also have a government powerful enough to TAKE EVERYTHING YOU HAVE AWAY FROM YOU.

We are there.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

THAT, as you have said often, is EVIL. I agree.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2015, 05:26:23 pm
GO said,
Quote
Of course Agelbert, We old time regulars know each other and our acts towell to get pissed at each other. Was just ribbing you.

They say familiarity breeds contempt, but it is my observation the other is true.

Still waiting for a dissertation on Global Warming, and it better be good, no BS or Charts. My ice blue testicles and over a grand in oil bills so far demand an explanation.  :icon_sunny: :exp-laugh: :exp-laugh:

GO,
The extreme cold (and by the way, it's a LOT WORSE where I am than where you are or where RE is as well!) is a DIRECT consequence of GLOBAL WARMING. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)

If you will recall, we went through this subject last year around this time when I said 2014 promised to be hotter than hell (never been there but ya get the idea  ;D). You scoffed. 2014 was the hottest year on record.

Based on my track record of accuracy and integrity (see the numerous times I took Snowleopard to task for pushing fossil fueler mendacity and propaganda - something that always seemed to upset you for some reason.     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191404.bmp&hash=007a2c20b76f970316a559a6e27cfd70c11f5998)I am going to explain to you what our FOSSIL FUEL OWNED GOVERNMENT is DOING to further f uck things up with their desperate attempt to put a DR. Strangelove Geo-engineered "heat shield" on the planet.

This is a quote from a recent discussion with Eddie.

QUOTE

February 16, 2015, 01:00:38 PM

 Eddie,
I believe geo engineering is quite advanced even though they (quote from our government "we will own the weather by 2025"     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)) don't "own" the weather yet. The reflective aluminum particles being sprayed routinely for over a decade now to keep our climate from over heating (see stretching the profits of fossil fuel oligarchs that OWN our government) are having several unexpected results.

1) the temperature extreme ranges have increased in degree span and rapidity of switching from normal to extreme heat or extreme cold is killing wildlife.

2) Vitamin D deficiency is now common in the USA when it was RARE just two decades ago. As a medical professional, you know that Vitamin D deficiency can lead to a plethora of deleterious health issues, including giving you lots of dental problems, never mind the weaker bones in growing children, early osteoporosis in adults and less immune system defense of several types of cancers.

3) Allergic reactions to the new toxins in the air for thousands of different species, including Homo SAPs.


4) There is a lot more
but that has to do with government media and medical profession CORKING of the reporting of, medical recognition of and proper treatment of humans experiencing harmful side effects from this profit preserving scheme for fossil fuelers trying to prevent or/and delay global warming.

Anecdotally, I have something to report that has me absolutely raging mad. The temperature is way too low for normal in Vermont. It's been that way for a couple of weeks. That long of a period with temperatures hovering just above or below zero (even in daylight) is NOT Vermont weather and, except for the little ice age centuries ago, never has been.

Even when it gets real cold, the animals survive BECAUSE the longer sunlight period in late February and early March enables them to warm their nests in the day. But when you F UCK with the sunlight by putting reflective particles in the air, this VITAL buffer that enables animal life to make it to the spring is gone. This is a DEATH SENTENCE for much of Vermont wildlife that doesn't hibernate.

Today I found an uninjured adult squirrel frozen to death. It was laying on our driveway. It's just another debt the MKing's of this world do not own up to with their profit over planet murderous irresponsibility.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-Bzb-1rVB8pc%2FUfXxBekcYVI%2FAAAAAAAAEm4%2FhXUkGCzFIPg%2Fs1600%2Fgiveafuckometer-gif.gif&hash=ba12a8b5eb920e7de0ca2ba5256e06bfc2c040e7)
F UCKING BASTARDS!

UNQUOTE

GO,
YOU and I are experiencing this SH IT because of people like YOU KNOW WHO. No Vermont town has EVER publicly broadcast over the TV and radio that people MUST leave their faucets RUNNING at pencil width of water. Winooski (just south of Colchester and slightly LESS Norh Pole F ucking Cold than Colchester) is telling Vermonters to do this in order to avoid huge expenses in road and frozen pipe repairs UNRELATED to the frozen pipes in homes. CLEAN water is being WASTED because of this COLD. People's water bills will not be raised but YOU KNOW we-the-people will end up paying for it somehow! They want us to leave the faucets running THROUGH March!!! Water pipes in homes are bursting from here all the way to ATLANTA, Georgia!

Do you think Mking and his pals are willing to foot the bill, or do you think, PERHAPS, that they will, ONCE AGAIN, disingenuously ask, "Uh, what happened to global Warming?".


"A buen entendedor pocas palabras bastan" = You, as a keen listener, do not need a lot of words to figure this out.  8)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 22, 2015, 10:38:29 pm
Who Are the Good Guys  ???

There is an easy way to tell if somebody is really one of the good guys who got famous. A whole lot more good people, just as good (or better), never had a following so we do not hear about them. The elite only notice GOOD people if they finger ELITE CRIME. That is how we-the-people end up learning about them.

1) While they are alive, they are ridiculed, reviled, cursed and demonized for having spoken truth to power by pointing out elite crimes (defending the poor and downtrodden is NO PROBLEM as long as you don't finger the elites as the responsible party - there are a LOT of people who are NOT good guys that do just that as a front  :emthdown:) to the point of A) getting a following and B) being imprisoned and/or tortured.

2) When they are dead they are celebrated.



Martin Luther King Jr. was a good guy.
Quote
We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values… when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.”
-- Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967




Gandhi was a good guy.

Gandhi's Seven Sins:
1. Wealth without work
2. Pleasure without conscience
3. Knowledge without character
4. Commerce without morality
5. Science without humanity
6. Worship without sacrifice
7. Politics without principle



Confucious was a good guy.

Quote
"Is not he a true philospher who, though he be unrecognized, cherishes no resentment?

What you do not wish done to yourself, do not do to others.

I will not grieve that others do not know me. I will grieve that I do not know others.

Do not wish for quick results, nor look for small advantages.

With coarse food to eat, water to drink, and my bended arm for a pillow, I still have joy in the midst of these things.

Riches and honor acquired by unrightiousness mean no more to me than the floating clouds."

Confucious (Kung Fu-tzu or Kung the Master) 551 B.C. - 479 B.C.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 16, 2015, 03:10:25 pm
Watching History As Desperate
 Neocon Empire America Dies

By Karl W. B. Schwarz  3-7-15

 
SNIPPET 1:

Quote
The acts that have fueled the western media propaganda, such as the Maidan snipers, the Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk secession votes, and MH 17 were Neocon Agenda 201 and all have backfired in the Neocon’s face. 

So in desperation they now try to change the subject and the focus to the murder of Russia opposition leader Boris Nemtsov. My grandfather had an interesting way to define the word ludicrous as being “an ant walking up a female elephant’s rear leg with **** on its mind”.

There are no suspects yet in the murder of Boris Nemtsov, yet the Western media is already painting the picture for their readers and viewers that Putin is entirely and unequivocally to blame, just like the Maidan snipers, Crimea, Donetsk and Lugansk, Russian invasions that have yet to happen, and the shooting down of Malaysia Air MH 17. Now lunatic Senator John McCain has stated that whoever did it, Putin is totally to blame. As many Americans know that is not the first time McCain has run off his mouth or has been an embarrassment to America.

All evidence is to the contrary on what the Western media is publishing and providing as hype, conjecture, rhetoric and propaganda and when necessary, just bald faced lies like Victoria Nuland. 

The western media and DC have the ‘case solved’ from afar, with no more facts to support their rhetoric than other claims they have made towards Russia. They cannot put any evidence on the table for it does not exist; it is just TV media ‘vaporware’ created by the Neocons and affiliated spin doctors. 

Such rhetoric and lies from the US and the media are part of the Neocon agenda towards Russia and any other nation on this planet that gets in the way and refuses to bow down to DC and the Neocon’s doctrine. 

I for one would be elated if Americans ever connect those dots in their mental fabric to recognize that conjecture is not fact, and assumptions and political spin are not facts, and neither are propaganda and hollow agenda driven rhetoric. And better, premeditated lies are not the Truth.

When the Western media rushes to point a finger of blame in the complete absence of evidence (or is being covered up by governments as is the case on MH 17) it is almost always (+99% of the time) the media bullhorn to shout down any dissent
, any questioning of what the facts really are and what the truth really is. Just accept the lies as the truth and go shopping, America.

SNIPPET 2:


Quote
The lust to control both the CIS Caspian Basin and Russian energy might is what Wolfowitz was talking about in 1992, and yes, Clinton as an unwilling Far Left Neocon played along to go after those assets so the USA would not have any rivals that have global power.

They missed their flight, because China and Russia got it done anyway in spite of the Neocon Doctrine. That is why you are seeing this idiotic stirring up of tensions with Russia and using Ukraine and the rest of the EU states bordering with Russia as cannon fodder. 

I guess many Americans do not realize that after Mikhail Gorbachev and Ronald Reagan defused the threat of nuclear war between USA and USSR, then came Boris Yeltsin as president and Vladimir Putin was at that time the Prime Minister of the new Russia Federation. 

Some readers may know or remember the name Boris Berezovsky (23 January 1946 ­ 23 March 2013). He was the front man in the Yeltsin regime for CIA, MI6 and US and UK elites that coveted the huge oil and natural gas reserves of the Caspian Basin region. That also relates to the Wolfowitz comment in Paul Craig Roberts article regarding “the former territory of the USSR”.

When Putin ascended to his first presidency, Berezovsky fled to the UK because Putin was bringing charges of treason and financial crimes against him for throwing the doors open and lining his own pockets to let the West elites into the CIS region for natural resource plundering. Yeltsin was allowing the same within what is now the Russia Federation and Putin slammed that door shut.


SNIPPET 3:

Quote

If anyone wanted into the CIS region, Berezovsky was the ‘go to guy’ to get that done. 

Former CENTCOM commander General Tommy Franks almost let the cat out of the bag when he and Rumsfeld were before Congress in early 2001 after Bush was sworn in. Franks admitted that one of the primary missions of his command was ‘the Afghanistan pipeline and access to the natural resources of the CIS region’, which is ‘territory of the former USSR’ as Wolfowitz explained the Neocon Doctrine. Neocon Donald Rumsfeld had to hurriedly change the subject because that was about 8 months before September 11, 2001.


http://www.rense.com/general96/watchinghist.html

Agelbert NOTE:
Anyone who fingers Putin as the "bad guy" has  swallowed Neocon Agnotologist Propaganda hook, line and sinker.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183404.bmp&hash=dc40a133c761f80036b08ef0f6c0427aaa7e9f4b)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fsnapoutofit.gif&hash=911b14b142101df534f739771fb2d3836a807d19)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 16, 2015, 06:10:44 pm
We will ALL regret a nuclear war with Russia.   :P

The neocons want a nice nuclear war with Russia because the neocon demon-osophy loves war, destruction and mayhem. I'm sure certain economists would claim that would boost our GDP! LOL!

But let us look on bright side.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b) Yep, there really is one! A nuclear winter will stop global warming and over population... And, of course, off grid "living" will become the norm! No more worries about big industries, fluoride in the water, geo-engineering pollution from aerosol sprays, consumerism, thimerosal containing vaccines causing autism in children, Wall Street bailouts or inflation.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.planetminecraft.com%2Ffiles%2Fresource_media%2Fscreenshot%2F1325%2FNuclearWinter_5724848_lrg.jpg&hash=5e1f4e7044635861628157d47c87f59aa913cc65)

Such fun times we live in.  :P

The neocons are HELL SPAWN.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44NzktIorVc&x-yt-ts=1422503916&x-yt-cl=85027636&feature=player_embedded

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 16, 2015, 06:18:22 pm
NEOCON MENS REA MODUS OPERANDI

Quote
When George W. Bush came along and crossed the line of separation of church and state with his federal funding of ‘Faith Based Initiatives’ and gravitated and solidified the Christian bloc on the Far Right, the only possible response from the Far Left (Obama, his appointees, Hillary Clinton, John Kerry, et al) was to take on the masquerade of being Far Left / Right warmongering Zionist Christian Neocons, too. 

In case you missed this nuance, this was also when Bush unleashed the Christian Dominionista nutcases like Erik Prince and Blackwater USA to push the US Neocon agenda as private mercenaries. They loved that new concept because they do not have to discuss it with Congress at all. 

Get that picture straight in your head because now, both sides of the DC aisle, are trying to pull the US and Europe into a war with a nuclear superpower named Russia. And make no mistake in judgment, the new Russia Federation is not the USSR, they are not trying to reassemble the USSR, but this constant provocation by the US and NATO to its very borders has been called.

Russia has recently announced that further harassment and threat to Russia via Ukraine will get a military response. I figure that would be over in about 5 to 10 days even with just conventional weapons.


Quote
Merely pens and contracts have defeated the Neocons mantra of ‘mightiest military in the world’, and most Americans already know what the costs have been in American blood and money wasted on a brain fart that the Neocons are solely responsible for creating. They are not as important to history as they think they are except for the idiotic policy directions they have promoted and pulled off, and then go hide under their desks as the blowback hits back home and the entire world knows they misjudged again.

After the ‘GW Bush GWOT Disaster’ the Neocons felt they needed breathing room and rebranding. What we all knew as PNAC [Project for a New American Century] has now re-labeled itself FPI, or Foreign Policy Initiative. They did that quietly just like Erik Prince renamed Blackwater USA as “Xi” as if now the Chinese are pushing US mercenary and private military interventionism. 

There has been a coup d'état in America and it was the Neocons on both sides of the aisle that pulled it off. They had the assistance of the MSM because those idiots were told to and then just rolled over and never asked the hard questions. They never bothered to perform their function to investigate, report and inform the public with the truth. Many times when Americans think they are hearing the news all they are listening to was an anchor reading to them on the teleprompter something that was written by the Neocons or their associates.

http://www.rense.com/general96/watchinghist.html (http://www.rense.com/general96/watchinghist.html)

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.sodahead.com%2Fpolls%2F000370273%2Fpolls_Smiley_Angry_256x256_3451_356175_answer_4_xlarge.png&hash=15577651daa4c35ff4d6b26217f99db6ebfde0b3)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 16, 2015, 10:03:01 pm
I never said Putin was the bad guy, but anybody who thinks he's a particularly good guy is demented. He's the baddest of a bad bunch, former Soviet KGB, who more or less stole the assets of the dying soviet Empire and divvied them up amongst themselves, with the tacit consent of the West, at the time.

He's a tough SOB oligarch who rules with an iron fist. Our oligarchs are stupid to **** with him so hard. They're very apt to regret it, and maybe sooner rather than later.

Absolutely correct.

Eddie and Surly,
And? I started the argument because I smelled some equivalence in the "smell the vodka" post  that IS NOT THERE (Eddie cleared that up, somewhat  ;)).  If you think it IS there, I respectfully disagree. Blood may be thicker than water, but OUR BEHAVIOR makes Putin's look like a Sunday school picnic!

The SAME PEOPLE that CAUSED 9/11 WANT THIS TO HAPPEN. Those people ARE NOT RUSSIANS!
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fe.fastcompany.net%2Fmultisite_files%2Fcocreate%2Fimagecache%2F1280%2Fposter%2F2012%2F10%2F1681757-poster-1280-1-clouds-over-cuba.jpg&hash=9a96b9e7b449a9692eff32420db020bd05aff4c7)
We've been down this road before. I know you guys are good guys and that YOU KNOW our country is one evil **** piece of ****. I agree that you both say so often.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fus.cdn2.123rf.com%2F168nwm%2Flenm%2Flenm1201%2Flenm120100200%2F12107060-illustration-of-a-smiley-giving-a-thumbs-up.jpg&hash=2046bc6d662e09d3014a2c404a2af6ba17f8217c)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 22, 2015, 02:53:06 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQrpLp-X0ws&feature=player_embedded
Any IDIOT that brings up the fact that Alex Jones pushes some wild stuff from time to time as an EXCUSE to UNDERMINE AND DISCREDIT the validity of what the above fire fighter says, can put there moronic, stupid, ignorant pap where the sun doesn't shine!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgen152.gif&hash=d5b10968fe56c4cb95fae17cee3cb420a5f4e2da)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nhi139RxzUI&feature=player_embedded

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BwZEgZgtT8&feature=player_embedded
Anatomy of a GREAT DECEPTION
The MENS REA of the FOSSIL FUEL GOVERNMENT in the planning, execution and cover up of this TREASONOUS CRIME is on FULL DISPLAY.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-241013183046.jpeg&hash=51c9c4f17e747698c76c65c7c1814eff4f32c400) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fpirates5B15D_th.gif&hash=32438e1ed2c4d1823d4ed2a193286525c840a605)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-015.gif&hash=8e6486af5151b5eb075de7af5fb71f325d34dc0c)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 22, 2015, 06:16:38 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aMyvKxBjLFk&feature=player_embedded
The Fossil Fuel Government DOING WHAT IT DOES (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113183729.png&hash=d898195c8ae0a55e2e6d84fc47b9d06f8ba13f03).
 http://www.sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/video-audio/?utm_source=berniebuzz&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Watch+Bernie+on+the+budget+on+MSNBC+featuredlinkurl&utm_campaign=National+Bernie+Buzz+03-20
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 24, 2015, 08:56:47 pm
This may have contributed to the Lufthansa Crash - OR provided cover for bombing it to "send a neocon message" to Germany to stop trying to avoid "helping" to corner Russia in the Ukraine.  ;)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

Half of Lufthansa long haul flights cancelled as pilots strike

 Pakistan Telegraph Sunday 22nd March, 2015


http://www.pakistantelegraph.com/index.php/sid/231280513

Quote
A Lufthansa vice president says the company is treating the crash of a Germanwings jet in France that carried 150 people as an accident for "the time being."

http://news.yahoo.com/latest-a320-good-safety-record-122642591.html

You don't get it? How about this comment from Paul Craig Roberts?


Quote
March 17, 2015 Cracks In Washington’s Empire

Paul Craig Roberts

Washington’s EU vassals might be finding their backbone. Britain, Germany, France, and Italy are reported to have defied Washington’s orders and applied to join the Chinese-led Asian Investment Bank.  http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index.php/topic,559.msg70935.html#msg70935

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fsnapoutofit.gif&hash=911b14b142101df534f739771fb2d3836a807d19)

The "R" in the BRICS Bank means RUSSIA...


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 24, 2015, 09:17:13 pm
Quote
UK Citizen Won Law Case That BBC Had Advance Knowledge of 9/11

A British judge ruled in favor of a UK citizen who said that the BBC’s premature announcement of the collapse of WTC Building 7 proved advance notice and constitutes a violation of the UK Terrorism Act as the BBC did not report to authorities that the BBC was told the building was down before the event happened.

Very interesting..  :icon_mrgreen: Read here: http://www.globalresearch.ca/bbc-foreknowledge-of-911-collapse-of-wtc-building-seven-british-man-won-law-suit-against-bbc-for-911-cover-up/5438161 (http://www.globalresearch.ca/bbc-foreknowledge-of-911-collapse-of-wtc-building-seven-british-man-won-law-suit-against-bbc-for-911-cover-up/5438161)

Under UK law the police have to investigate, but Washington’s sock puppet Cameron will invoke “national security”   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fugly004.gif&hash=c56db4280057389afd154a1cb4057410151579c8) to block the police investigation of the BBC’s advance notice.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/23/uk-citizen-won-law-case-bbc-advance-knowledge-911/ (http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2015/03/23/uk-citizen-won-law-case-bbc-advance-knowledge-911/)

Put your 19 Arabs with box cutters bullshit where the sun doesn't shine.

http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg2866/#msg2866 (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg2866/#msg2866)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 24, 2015, 09:45:04 pm
This may have contributed to the Lufthansa Crash - OR provided cover for bombing it to "send a neocon message" to Germany to stop trying to avoid "helping" to corner Russia in the Ukraine.  ;) :evil4:

Half of Lufthansa long haul flights cancelled as pilots strike

 Pakistan Telegraph Sunday 22nd March, 2015



http://www.pakistantelegraph.com/index.php/sid/231280513 (http://www.pakistantelegraph.com/index.php/sid/231280513)

Quote
A Lufthansa vice president says the company is treating the crash of a Germanwings jet in France that carried 150 people as an accident for "the time being."

http://news.yahoo.com/latest-a320-good-safety-record-122642591.html (http://news.yahoo.com/latest-a320-good-safety-record-122642591.html)

You don't get it? How about this comment from Paul Craig Roberts?


Quote
March 17, 2015 Cracks In Washington’s Empire

Paul Craig Roberts

Washington’s EU vassals might be finding their backbone. Britain, Germany, France, and Italy are reported to have defied Washington’s orders and applied to join the Chinese-led Asian Investment Bank.  http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index.php/topic,559.msg70935.html#msg70935 (http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index.php/topic,559.msg70935.html#msg70935)


 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fsnapoutofit.gif&hash=911b14b142101df534f739771fb2d3836a807d19)


The "R" in the BRICS Bank means RUSSIA...


So are you leaning towards sabotage rather than methane ?


From what I have learned of the descent trajectory of the aircraft (see gravity and rocks),
Sabotage is a no brainer here.

I know a thing or two about aircraft. They DO NOT come apart easily from some fuel tank explosion, explosion of hazardous cargo or from bird strike casued rapid decompression.

ONLY a very precisely placed, AND SUFFICIENTLY POWERFUL, explosive will cause them to turn into a bunch of rocks under the influence of gravity. That's the way that goes.

Modern jets are fly by wire(less). There are NO CONTROL CABLES going to the cockpit like there used to be. That saved a lot of weight. That also makes it REAL EASY to take the pilots "out of the loop" of controlling the aircraft through sabotage of the electronic redundant (main and backup) systems in the empennage and wing box.

You don't need a lot of punch to do that. But you do need a lot of punch to destroy the connection of the wings to the fuselage. I'm sure they did that.

Finally, you need to short circuit the coc kpit voice recorder link to the black box located near, or in, the empennage. That way, the pilots cannot report on what transpired after the explosion. IOW, the pilots have no voice, no control and no wings. So long, mom. End of story.

OTHERWISE, the plane glides or flies somehow for QUITE A DISTANCE before it crashes. The "glide path" of a ROCK is prima facie evidence of SABOTAGE or a midair collision.

There was only ONE aircraft involved in this crash (see Occam's razor).  8)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 24, 2015, 10:23:47 pm
Paul Craig Roberts linked to this article:   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e) 
Quote
NATO Is Marching Towards Russia, and They Have No Idea What Awaits Them

America is fully aware that the way to draw Russia into a conflict is to push forward towards Russia's borders. In time, Russia will be forced to defend its right to exist, and when this happens, western powers will not know what hit them

Stanislav Mishin

(Mat Rodina)
  opinion  Mon, Mar 23 |

http://russia-insider.com/en/2015/03/22/4790
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 26, 2015, 12:24:43 am
MEDVEDEV TO USA: TIME TO TALK ABOUT ALIENS, OR WE WILL…  

SNIPPET:
Quote

Now, regular readers here know that I'm nowhere close to the "disclosure" mania that infects the UFOlogy world with its very own special version of rapture prediction.

But, what is very telling in this case is that Dmitri Medvedev, Prime Minister, and at one time, President of Russia, is calmly telling the reporter(if you go to the first video linked in the article), that, yes, the Russian President is briefed on two things (1) the nuclear "football" with which he will launch Russian nuclear missiles in case of a general war, and (2) the presence of aliens and the special Russian security service (Men in Black, believe it or not) designed to trace them.
http://gizadeathstar.com/2015/02/medvedev-usa-time-talk-aliens-will/ (http://gizadeathstar.com/2015/02/medvedev-usa-time-talk-aliens-will/)

6 former members of Congress, and others, seek full UFO, extraterrestrial, disclosure


SNIPPET:
 
Quote

One step away from ‘ending the truth embargo’


By Shepard Ambellas

WASHINGTON D.C. (INTELLIHUB.COM) — At this point it’s clear that high-level officials within the Obama Administration, along with key members of the Central Intelligence Agency and NASA, are actively involved in the full on cover-up of the extraterrestrial presence on earth and off.

With only 150 billion star systems in the universe one can only imagine the possibilities. And ever since Roswell, one can only imagine the cover-up — the extent, on such a grand scale.

Although the truth is slowly coming out.

https://www.intellihub.com/6-former-members-congress-seek-full-ufo-extraterrestrial-disclosure/ (https://www.intellihub.com/6-former-members-congress-seek-full-ufo-extraterrestrial-disclosure/)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 26, 2015, 02:37:46 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260315143430.png&hash=6e9954ef3b4c7977d22935431424f8cafc8a6ece)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 26, 2015, 07:36:13 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260315195505.png&hash=7577e39d873239f53f71e466815cb84b518dd303)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fen%2Fd%2Fd7%2FFlightrecorders.JPG&hash=733c62edb40ad5a0f67bf442c45885be7d3c8d0c)
A Flight Data Recorder (left) and Coc kpit Voice Recorder (right) mounted in the rear fuselage of an aircraft. Each has an Underwater Locator Beacon mounted in brackets on its front.

Please NOTE that they are RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER. Please NOTE the DIFFERENT SHAPE of the Flight data recorder from the Coc kpit voice recorder.
  :icon_mrgreen:

The two recorders are required by international regulation to be capable of surviving the conditions likely to be encountered in a severe aircraft accident.

For this reason, they are typically specified to withstand an impact of 3400 g and temperatures of over 1,000 °C (1,830 °F) as required by EUROCAE ED-112. They have been required in commercial aircraft in the US since 1967.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_recorder (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flight_recorder)

Who wants to do the math on a 340 mph SLIDING stop?  ;) No, it was NOT A DEAD STOP BECAUSE THE DEBRIS TRAIL IS SPREAD OUT and the crushable area initial deceleration of the fuselage preceded the actual full deceleration of the black boxes in the empennage. IOW, they were somewhat below 340 mph when THEY began to decelerate along the ground.

Do you think MORE THAN THREE THOUSAND FOUR HUNDRED G's (forces of ONE gravity deceleration multiplied by 3,400!  :o) were pulled on those black boxes? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2932.gif&hash=0eaec4791a5825821998245e7fcd7744b56557fe) I don't.

And for the record, the flight data recorder is DESIGNED to be TOUGHER than the voice recorder. They NEED that data far more than the voice to understand what went wrong and why. Flight data information is sine qua non for the successful detection of the CAUSE of a crash.

But ya know, just like there has "never been a steel reinforced skyscraper that was "destroyed by fire UNTIL 9/11"  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0), it was just "bad luck" that the most VITAL, strong and durably designed black box (the flight DATA recorder) was "damaged" while the LARGER, HEAVIER, BOX SHAPED, coc kpit voice recorder survived just fine so we could ALL HEAR the "BANGING ON THE COC KPIT DOOR"  and the "BREATHING" of the "lone nut" right to the end... 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-010215144153.png&hash=cb7da018cde919e11130c32b40331f5d9405e537)

This STINKS TO HIGH HEAVEN!
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 27, 2015, 01:02:15 am
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270315011242.png&hash=084a02358cb5b1d736dbbb9f04cdb0f4399df227)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270315005628.png&hash=b6c938ab4c5c598d5b8a2218e146de68a5c204af)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 27, 2015, 01:44:07 am
Final note for today about the A320 that makes the "lone nut" conspiracy theory VERY hard to believe.

Airbus A320

Above 16,000 ft. - Fly no greater than Mach .79

Vne/Mmo - Never Exceed/Maximum Mach Number = .90
Cruise Airspeed:· Mach .71 to .79

Descend with throttles at idle at initial descent. Set auto throttle to hold descent airspeed of Mach .65 to 16,000 ft. and 250 KIAS below 16,000 ft.
http://www.flywestwind.com/Hangar/Aircraft_Files/FOMs/A320FOM.pdf (http://www.flywestwind.com/Hangar/Aircraft_Files/FOMs/A320FOM.pdf)

what happens if you, BEING A LONE NUT  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0), TRY TO GET AROUND THAT without FIRST HAVING SABOTAGED THE AUTOPILOT AND THE ON BOARD COMPUTER THAT OVERRIDES WRONG PILOT MANUAL COMMANDS ON THE STICK AND THROTTLES? ???

The airplane is a fly-by-wire design, which means the pilot does not control the plane, the pilot is simply giving instructions to the computer that flies the plane. And the software has a flight envelope protection that would prevent the airplane from operating in any conditions that are outside of said envelope. Which means, that any attempt at making it OPERATE IN THE OVERSPEED CONDITION WILL BE disallowed by the avionics system. 

SOMEBODY TAMPERED WITH THE A320 COMPUTER(S) BEFORE THE FLIGHT. Forget the "lone nut"; it's a lie. And the pilot has been turned into another patsy by the fascist M.I.C.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183404.bmp&hash=dc40a133c761f80036b08ef0f6c0427aaa7e9f4b)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 28, 2015, 04:29:11 pm
(https://theflyingengineer.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/banner.jpg)
View of a co-pilot (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) ;) in an A320.

What the media, in regard to the A320 German Airwings crash, REFUSES to report (See the dog that didn't bark - Sherlock Holmes), that anybody that supports the scientific method is required to report:

The speed of sound at the temperature and altitude the German Airwings crashed was approximately 700 mph.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Speed_of_sound)

The reported speed at the time of the crash was 430 mph. The aircraft was WELL BELOW 10,000 feet when it crashed.

The flight envelope protection software will not allow the A320 to operate above mach .79 VMO ( maximum operating velocity). The throttles will be reduced to flight idle immediately when that condition is detected by the computers. At the pitch attitude (angle of descent) the A320 had when it impacted the ground, a velocity of 430 mph was impossible with engines at flight idle. At flight idle, the aircraft would have crashed at a maximum of approximately 280 mph.

Structural failure due to wing loading above Mach .90 is the reason that Mach .90  is VNE (never exceed velocity). When the A320 is between Mach .79 and Mach .90, the overspeed alarms are constantly sounding, as well as red warning lights blinking and ****pit messages scrolling on the data screens. All the sounds are picked up by the ****pit voice recorder. All the warnings triggered by the software are recorded on the flight data recorder.

Excerpts from  a normal flight of an A320:

With fly by wire technology, the aircraft cannot, under normal circumstances, bank the aircraft by more than 67 degrees from the vertical, pitch up by more than 30 degrees, and pitch down by more than 15 degrees. In addition to these, all maneuvers are limited in the stress induced to the aircraft to 2.5G. In the event of over speeding, the aircraft raises the nose gently.

The whole flight, and the navigation along the ground, is taken care of by the Flight management System on board the aircraft. The Flight Management System (FMS) integrates sensors, systems, and displays to give economy with a minimum workload.

A small white arrow on the electronic map, known as the Navigation Display, indicated the optimum point at which the aircraft should begin its descent. Firman requested for descent from Air Traffic Control 30 seconds prior and Henry began Mandala 276’s descent into Surabaya. All by the autopilot, of course.

The engines whined down, and the
(https://theflyingengineer.files.wordpress.com/2011/11/17.jpg)
A small pink dot on the 2nd vertical tape from the left, indicating the vertical path deviation

aircraft began descending at idle thrust at 2800 feet per minute. A small pink ball on the primary Flight Display (PFD) indicated that the aircraft was 440 ft below the ideal descent path. A small lightning bolt drawn on the Navigation Display indicated the point where the aircraft would intercept the FMS computed descent path.

Most of the descent was performed at idle thrust, which speaks well about the economical management of the flight by the 320’s FMS. The aircraft reached the deceleration point, a point at which the aircraft starts slowing down, to facilitate the extension of flaps.

http://theflyingengineer.com/flightdeck/airbus-a320-experience/ (http://theflyingengineer.com/flightdeck/airbus-a320-experience/)

OF COURSE,
a "lone nut" co-pilot would know all the above and attempt figure a way around it, RIGHT? He would certainly ignore the alarms and try to keep the engine power form being reduced to flight idle even as he "fooled" the arcraft computers by keeping his angle of descent at less than15 degrees, wouldn't he?

But THERE is the rub. There IS NO WAY around the A320'S FIVE computers UNLESS you sabotaged the software. If, by some clever skullduggery, he managed to keep the engines throttled up, the INSTANT the wing load sensors picked up more than plus or minus 2.5 Gs (easy to do when flying BELOW 10,000 because the air is thicker - also the air over mountainous terrain is ALWAYS turbulent) at 100 mph or more above maximum safe speed, the computers are going correct that PRONTO.

There is NO pilot override to emergency computer action, PERIOD.

There is NO way for a pilot to modify the software of any of those five computers. That is a maintenance function. When a pilot enters a flight plan, the computer(s) software gives him all the options available, including climb, cruise and descent profiles. The pilot can pick from the choices presented to him, PERIOD.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2Fthumb%2F7%2F7b%2FSilv-06.jpg%2F220px-Silv-06.jpg&hash=6385f497a89e3f2fd7ae7c203c055167e9b7284a)
Quote
Why did the dog not bark?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbfVGIBcD8c&feature=player_embedded
Ground Proximetry Warning System (GPWS) Audio Alarms on the A320.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 28, 2015, 07:49:56 pm
“Diving” into the A320: Dive Speeds
18 Sunday Mar 2012

Posted by theflyingengineer in Flight Safety, Operations

Tags 0.89, 381kts, A320, A380, Airbus, Airbus A380, Authority, Dive Speed, Expedite Descent, Flight Test, High, HSP, Mach, MD, MMO, Overspeed, Proection, Sidestick, SPeed, Structural Damage, VD, VD/MD, VMO, Warning

An apparently “lesser known” fact about the Airbus A320 is the dive speed, its significance, and the associated consequences.

The dive speed is the absolute maximum speed above which the aircraft must not fly. Typically, to achieve this speed, the aircraft must enter a dive (steep descent), as the engines cannot produce sufficient thrust to overcome aerodynamic drag in level flight. At the dive speed, excessive aircraft vibrations develop which put the aircraft structural integrity at stake.

On the Airbus fly by wire aircraft, it is not possible to reach the dive speed, due to the flight envelope protections available in normal law.

If the sidestick is maintained full forward, and the airspeed crosses VMO/MMO (350kts), the pitch nose-down authority smoothly reduces to zero at approximately VMO (350kts) +16 / MMO + 0.04. This however, does not guarantee the airspeed stabilizing at this speed.

If (350kts) MMO + 0.04 / VMO + 20kts is reached or exceeded, then a structural inspection is necessary. Beyond MD (= MMO+0.07) / VD (= VMO + 31kts) (A320 family), structural disintegration can occur.


Here are the speeds for the A320, in Mach number and Kts. The lesser value must always be respected, at all times:


Dive Speeds: MD/VD = M0.89/381kts
Maximum Operating Speeds: MMO/VMO = M0.82/350kts.
Expedite Descent (as on FCU, if available) M0.8/340kts


(https://theflyingengineer.files.wordpress.com/2012/03/speed-tape.jpg)
The graphical representation of speeds above VMO/MMO, (made by The Flying Engineer), gives you a clearer picture of the speeds, their significance for the FBW system, and the consequences.

To understand the seriousness of the VD/MD, take a look at the video below, which involves the VD/MD testing of the Airbus A380. The MD for the A380 is Mach 0.96, and the test crew dread taking the airplane that far.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ImSuZjvkATw&feature=player_embedded

http://theflyingengineer.com/tag/overspeed/

374 Kts = 430 mph alleged crash speed of German Airwings A320...

 knots versus mph conversion (http://www.metric-conversions.org/speed/knots-to-miles-per-hour.htm)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 29, 2015, 12:21:55 am
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 29, 2015, 09:35:40 pm
A320: Controlled Flight Into Terrain? .

Published March 29, 2015. | By Slogger

http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2015/03/29/a320-controlled-flight-into-terrain/ (http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/blog/2015/03/29/a320-controlled-flight-into-terrain/)

RE,
Thank you for posting this article.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e) 
  Great info on all those accidents!  :o

However, unlike those other accidents, the LACK of communication from the coc kpit in this case is what makes me want to point at sabotage.  8)

Communication was not an issue in any of the A320 accidents. It certainly WAS here. The FALSE claim by the authorities that they could "hear the co-pilot breathing to the end"  :evil4: while all sorts of alarms were going off  says it ALL.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.u.arizona.edu%2F%7Epatricia%2Fcute-collection%2Fsmileys%2Flying-smiley.gif&hash=a34c2f7344d5f54f7009a4e684bb6c7310cdda03)

I do not believe that radio transmissions were leaving that aircraft, PERIOD. Even if a crazy man was at the controls, as they claim, they would NOT have been able to hear him breathing with the alarms going off.   

Quote
If Lubitz was really that depressed, why was he allowed to fly? The truth is, he wasn’t. “He flew into a mountain because he was depressed/had split up with his partner” simply doesn’t hold water: follow the timeline back, and you will see that Lubitz had made a full recovery from his depression. He took a break from training six years ago because he was responsible enough to realise he needed to get his head straight.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

Quote
My point here is not to kick off yet another conspiracy theory.

Well, He SHOULD be. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53)  ALL REAL CONPIRACIES are detected by FIRST formulating a THEORY that FITS THE EVIDENCE. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F129fs238648.gif&hash=bbf8ad9cbaff9e7d3097c40c21a931e6649a237f)

The press is NOT exposing a "flawed" rush to judgment; they are USING a TIRED MO with a LONG TRACK RECORD of "lone nut" branding to front run a witch hunt for TPTB in order to distract people from the Criminal State Sponsored MEANS, MOTIVE and OPPORTUNITY Occam's razor truth! The media behavior is EVIDENCE of collusion and Mens rea, not stupidity or ignorance!

Quote
I’m just concerned (as an occasional depressive myself) that an attempt has been made by both the media and Lufthansa to make his depression seem contemporaneous with the A320 crash: it clearly wasn’t.

I'm a bit more than "concerned". I'm mad as hell at this OBVIOUS arm waving, hysterical "blame the victim" INFAMY while they don't say ZIP about the aircraft technology vulnerabilities and the REAL possibility of sabotage.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

Quote
... an analysis of transponder data by air tracker Flightradar24 showed that the plane’s autopilot had been manually reset from 38,000 to below 100 feet, immediately following which Lubitz began a steady descent at high speed.
  ::)

Thee above is OBVIOUSLY an assumption, not evidence (not even WEAK evidence!).  :P

It is CHILD'S PLAY to have a flight tracker interpret a software generated altitude assignment as a "manual" altitude setting. They do not have the flight data recorder data because it is "damaged" and they don't have the "QAR" (a maintenance flight data recorder in the coc kpit that has been used to access data in previous accidents) because that was probably destroyed on impact (it's not as robust as the flight data recorder).

Maintenance checks the QAR when pilots write up aircraft problems. So, they have ZERO evidence that a human actually toughed that altitude assignment nob on the autopilot.

"High Speed"? I don't think so (see aircraft flight envelope protection in my posts).

And they keep saying 38,000 feet! WTF!!? An aircraft is either assigned 37,000 feet or 39,000 feet. NOBODY is assigned 38,000 feet! The service ceiling (ability to control the aircraft within safe parameters) for the A320 is 39,000 feet. For a flight of that duration, 37,000 feet would be rather high, but they might be assigned it for traffic.

I see NO reason for them to ask to fly at their service ceiling for a "relatively" short flight. Perhaps the autopilot malfunctioned and the aircraft kept climbing after 37,000 feet. That might explain why a descent was initiated at 38,000 feet, if that is what actually occurred.

Ward did everyone a service by posting the A320 track record.(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e) 
 However, I think he takes media hype a bit too seriously. When the media "rush to judgement", they are ALWAYS being DIRECTED to do so.

There is NO null hypothesis in regard to media action. The mainstream media is GUILTY until proven innocent. Ward should know that. 
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 29, 2015, 10:34:18 pm
another thing sloger didnt say is the black box is reported damaged so often these days, you would think they were never designed to withstand crashes.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.runemasterstudios.com%2Fgraemlins%2Fimages%2F2thumbs.gif&hash=98130be1edf2bed4a80ac8f134b0126673bd469e) 


UB,
That comment you made got me to take another look at the crash site picture. And looky here what I came up with.  8) You will get a kick out of this. I am very good at putting puzzles together when I have easy color schemes to guide me.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fupload.wikimedia.org%2Fwikipedia%2Fcommons%2F2%2F25%2F320_GERMANWINGS_D-AIPX_147_10_05_14_BCN_RIP_%252816730197959%2529.jpg&hash=547dcd9a2fdb12b3adc92b8cf473862901856579)
Picture taken in 2014 of the A320 in the crash seen below. Notice that a large part of the vertical stabilizer is intact. That white part you see is more a part of the tail boom on the empennage than the vertical stabilizer. Just beneath that is where the BLACK BOXES (much more robust than a vertical stabilizer) were located when the aircraft was in one piece...     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191404.bmp&hash=007a2c20b76f970316a559a6e27cfd70c11f5998)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-290315002041.png&hash=914ebcc9b644c16d3abae2538c33ca606d6535a3)
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 03, 2015, 10:26:01 pm
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SP_Ezjm7xDg&feature=player_embedded

Are you open minded enough to listen to CFS from Christopher Bollyn?

If not, ANY claim that you are "open minded" is:
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-111214174727.png&hash=a0ea65f844542e4709bd444bd2f70496c434c56b)

Quote
Published on Mar 7, 2015


Christopher Bollyn 2015 “Solving 911 Ends the War”

In the name of 9/11, “wars have been waged, governments overthrown, and an untold number of lives sacrificed.” Yet 9/11 is an unsolved crime of terrorism and mass murder, with no trial and no serious investigation. This elaborately planned criminal deception was carried out “with the intention that the public would be deceived with a false explanation blaming the atrocity on Osama Bin Laden and Al Quaida....”

Christopher Bollyn states he has written “Solving 9-11: the Deception that Changed the World” because he could not remain indifferent and silent...”as the lies about 9/11 were used to wage wars of aggression and transform American into a police state.”

An investigative journalist from Illinois, Bollyn sojourned in Europe and the Middle East before studying languages, history and journalism at UC Davis and Santa Cruz. His degree in history focused on the Israeli occupation of Palestine. He has written in-depth articles about the Middle East, electronic vote fraud, the dangers of depleted uranium, and the history and geo-political background of 9/11.

In 2007, Bollyn and his family moved to Sweden when his research into 9/11 brought about his being attacked by undercover police and then charged with assaulting them. He began writing this book and has been touring in the US with the hope of raising the consciousness of the American public and exposing the true culprits.

Readers of his book have said it is “the top-notch work of the 9/11 collection and ...the work of a brave genius...information we can use to reformulate our worldview....gives me hope that truth and liberty can ultimately prevail.”

More information at www.bollyn.com.
--
Tags: 911, Christopher Bollyn, Solving 911, Jewish Lightning, Sayanim, Agents, Assets
--
Produced: 2015, Episode: CD-S911, 57:58, Category: Education
--
View This Show On YouTube: http://youtu.be/SP_Ezjm7xDg
--
More 911TV Films On YouTube: http://youtube.com/911TVorg
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Phone your local public TV station and ask them to broadcast this film to your local community. Your station can download the film in TV broadcast format from PEGMedia.org .

This film is available for any Public TV station in the country - and world - to broadcast.

Stations that use Telvue, DVDs or other media can contact 911TV1@gmail.com for instructions.
--
This PEGMedia Episode: http://www.pegmedia.org/index.php?q=m...
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http://Blog.911tv.org
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911TV's Website
http://www.911TV.org
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 19, 2015, 02:39:22 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwhowhatwhy.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F10%2F031.jpg&hash=0cdd7b72eded62a6be7de0fa22ef0c92df3786a9)

American Terrorism

The Hidden Government Group Linking JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra And 9/11

By Peter Dale Scott October 7th, 2014

Peter Dale Scott is considered the father of “Deep Politics”— the study of hidden permanent institutions and interests whose influence on the political realm transcends the elected, appointed and career officials who come and go.

A Professor of English at Berkeley and a former Canadian diplomat, he is the author of several critically acclaimed books on the pivotal events of our country’s recent past, including Deep Politics and the Death of JFK ; Drugs, Oil, and War: The United States in Afghanistan, Colombia, and Indochina (War and Peace Library); The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America and  American War Machine: Deep Politics, the CIA Global Drug Connection, and the Road to Afghanistan (War and Peace Library). He is also a poet, whose long work, Coming to Jakarta: A Poem about Terror, was hailed as “the most important political poem to appear in the English language in a very long time,” by Robert Hass, Poet Laureate of the United States from 1995 to 1997.

Daniel Ellsberg said of his book Drugs, Oil and War, “It makes most academic and journalistic explanations of our past and current interventions read like government propaganda written for children.”

What follows is based on a recent Scott lecture entitled “The JFK Assassination and Other Deep Events”, and will be expanded on further in his next book, The American Deep State, due out in November.


***

For some time now, I have been analyzing American history in the light of what I have called structural deep events: events, like the JFK assassination, the Watergate break-in, Iran-Contra, or 9/11, which repeatedly involve law-breaking or violence, are mysterious to begin with, are embedded in ongoing covert processes, have political consequences that enlarge covert government, and are subsequently covered up by systematic falsifications in the mainstream media and internal government records.

The more I study these deep events, the more I see suggestive similarities between them, increasing the possibility that they are not unrelated external intrusions on American history, but parts of an endemic process, sharing to some degree or other a common source.

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A deep state event seen from deep space. New York City, 9/11. NASA Photo

For example, one factor linking Dallas, Watergate, Iran-Contra, and 9/11, has been the involvement in all four deep events of personnel involved in America’s highest-level emergency planning, known since the 1950s as Continuity of Government (COG) planning, or more colloquially inside the Pentagon as “the Doomsday Project.” A few of these actors may have been located at the top, as overseers of the secret COG system. Others – including some I shall talk about today – were located further down in its secret communications network.

I see this planning group as one among many in what I have chosen to call the American deep state, along with agencies like the CIA and NSA, the private groups like Booz Allen Hamilton to which more than half of the US intelligence budget is outsourced, and finally the powerful banks and corporations whose views are well represented in the CIA and NSA. But if only one group among many, the COG planning group is also special, because of its control of and access to a communications channel, not under government control, that can reach deeply into the US social structure. I discuss these matters at some length in my next book, The American Deep State, due out in November.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwhowhatwhy.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F10%2F031.jpg&hash=0cdd7b72eded62a6be7de0fa22ef0c92df3786a9) COG planning was originally authorized by Truman and Eisenhower as planning for a response to a crippling atomic attack that had decapitated government. In consequence its planning group contemplated extreme measures, including what Alfonso Chardy in 1987 called “suspension of the Constitution.” And yet in Iran-Contra its asset of a secret communications network, developed for the catastrophe of decapitation, was used instead to evade an official embargo on arms sales to Iran that dated back to 1979. My question today is whether the network could have been similarly misused in November 1963.

The Iran-contra misuse has been well-documented. Oliver North supervised the sale of arms to Iran by using his resources as the National Security Council action officer for COG planning, under cover of a “National Program Office” that was overseen by then Vice-President George H. W.  Bush. North and his superiors could thus use the COG emergency network, known then as Flashboard, for the arms sales to Iran that had to be concealed from other parts of the Washington bureaucracy as well as the public. So when North had to send emergency instructions for arms delivery to the US Embassy in Lisbon, instructions that directly contravened the embargo prohibiting such sales, he used the Flashboard network to avoid alerting the Ambassador and other unwitting personnel.

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The documented example of Iran-Contra allows me to explain what I am saying about the users of the COG network, and also what I am not saying. To begin with, I am not saying that a single “Secret Team” has for decades been using the COG network to manipulate the US Government from outside it. There is no evidence to suggest that North’s actions in Iran-Contra were known to any of his superiors other than CIA chief William Casey and probably George Bush. The point is that a very small group had access to a high-level secret network outside government review, in order to implement a program in opposition to government policy. They succumbed to the temptation to use this secure network that had been designed for other purposes. I have argued elsewhere that this secure network was used again on 9/11, to implement key orders for which the 9/11 Commission could find no records. Whether it was also used for illicit purposes is not known.

It is certain that the COG emergency network program survived North’s demise, and continued to be secretly developed for decades, at a cost of billions, and overseen by a team including Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld. It is relevant that the two men’s presence on the committee spanned three administrations – those of Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton — even though at one point under Clinton neither man held a position inside the U.S. government. Such continuity was essential for a group so secret that few records existed of its activities. And on 9/11 COG plans were officially implemented for the first time, by Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, the two men who had planned them for so many years.

Whether or not they knew about Iran-Contra, Cheney and Rumsfeld were on the COG planning committee at the time of Iran-Contra. There is no such obvious link between COG planning and Watergate, but the involvement of COG personnel in Watergate is nonetheless striking. James McCord, one of the Watergate burglars, was a member of a small Air Force Reserve unit in Washington attached to the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) that was assigned “to draw up lists of radicals and to develop contingency plans for censorship of the news media and U.S. mail in time of war.” His unit was part of the Wartime Information Security Program (WISP), which had responsibility for activating “contingency plans for imposing censorship on the press, the mails and all telecommunications (including government communications) [and] preventive detention of civilian ‘security risks,’ who would be placed in military ‘camps.’” In addition, John Dean, perhaps the central Watergate figure, had overseen secret COG activities when serving as the associate deputy attorney general.

In the case of the JFK assassination, I wish to focus on two men who functioned as part of the communications network of the Office of Emergency Planning (OEP), the agency renamed in 1968 as the Office of Emergency Preparedness (to which McCord was attached), and renamed again in 1982 as the National Program Office (for which Oliver North was the action officer).

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These two men (there are others) are Winston Lawson, the Secret Service advance man who from the lead car of the motorcade was in charge of the Secret Service radio channels operating in the motorcade; and Jack Crichton, the army intelligence reserve officer who with Deputy Dallas Police Chief George Lumpkin selected the Russian interpreter for Marina Oswald’s first (and falsified) FBI interview.

Lawson has drawn the critical attention of JFK researchers, both for dubious actions he took before and during the assassination, and also for false statements he made after it (some of them under oath). For example, Lawson reported after the assassination that motorcycles were deployed on “the right and left flanks of the President’s car” (17 WH 605). On the morning of November 22, however, the orders had been changed (3 WH 244), so that the motorcycles rode instead, as Lawson himself testified to the Warren Commission, “just back of the President’s car” (4 WH 338; cf. 21 WH 768-70). Captain Lawrence of the Dallas Police testified that that the proposed side escorts were redeployed to the rear on Lawson’s own instructions (7 WH 580-81; cf. 18 WH 809, 21 WH 571). This would appear to have left the President more vulnerable to a possible crossfire.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwhowhatwhy.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F10%2F06.jpg&hash=e177325df6f8fb90ce75aa8544de3b6525f84b31) Early on November 22, at Love Field, Lawson installed, in what would become the lead car, the base radio whose frequencies were used by all Secret Service agents on the motorcade. This radio channel, operated by the White House Communications Agency (WHCA), was used for some key decisions before and after the assassination, yet its records, unlike those of the Dallas Police Department (DPD) Channels One and Two, were never made available to the Warren Commission, or any subsequent investigation. The tape was not withheld because it was irrelevant; on the contrary, it contained very significant information.

The WHCA actually reports to this day on its website that the agency was “a key player in documenting the assassination of President Kennedy.” However it is not clear for whom this documentation was conducted, or why it was not made available to the Warren Commission, the House Select Committee on Assassinations, or the Assassination Records Review Board (ARRB). It should have been.

For one thing, the WHCA tape, as Vincent Palamara has written, contains the “key” to the unresolved mystery of who, after the shooting, redirected the motorcade to Parkland hospital. The significance of this apparently straightforward command, about which there was much conflicting testimony, is heightened when we read repeated orders on the Dallas Police radio transcript to “cut all traffic for the ambulance going to Parkland code 3” (17 WH 395) – the ambulance in question having nothing to do with the president (whose shooting had not yet been announced on the DPD radio). In fact the ambulance had been dispatched about ten minutes before the assassination to pick someone from in front of the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD), who was wrongly suspected of having suffered an epileptic seizure.

Lawson later reported to the Secret Service that he heard on his radio “that we should proceed to the nearest hospital.” He wrote also that he “requested Chief Curry to have the hospital contacted,” and then that “Our Lead Car assisted the motorcycles in escorting the President’s vehicle to Parkland Hospital” (17 WH 632), cf. 21 WH 580). In other words, after hearing something on the WHCA radio, Lawson helped ensure that the President’s limousine would follow the route already set up by the motorcycles for the epileptic. (In his very detailed Warren Commission testimony, Lawson said nothing about the route having already been cleared. On the contrary he testified that “we had to do some stopping of cars and holding our hands out the windows and blowing the sirens and horns to get through” (4 WH 354).

The WHCA radio channel used by Lawson and others communicated almost directly to the WHCA base at Mount Weather in Virginia, the base facility of the COG network. From there, Secret Service communications were relayed to the White House, via the

batteries of communications equipment connecting Mount Weather with the White House and “Raven Rock” — the underground Pentagon sixty miles north of Washington — as well as with almost every US military unit stationed around the globe.

Jack Crichton, head of the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit of Dallas, was also part of this Mount Weather COG network. This was in his capacity as chief of intelligence for Dallas Civil Defense, which worked out of an underground Emergency Operating Center. As Russ Baker reports, “Because it was intended for ‘continuity of government’ operations during an attack, [the Center] was fully equipped with communications equipment.” In retrospect the Civil Defense Program is remembered derisively, for having advised schoolchildren, in the event of an atomic attack, to hide their heads under their desks.But in 1963 civil defense was one of the urgent responsibilities assigned to the Office of Emergency Planning, which is why Crichton, as much as Secret Service agent Lawson, could be in direct touch with the OEP’s emergency communications network at Mount Weather.

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As summarized by the FBI, Mamantov’s account of Marina’s Russian testimony was as follows:

MARINA OSWALD advised that LEE HARVEY OSWALD owned a rifle which he used in Russia about two years ago. She observed what she presumed to be the same rifle in a blanket in the garage at [Ruth Paine’s residence]…. MARINA OSWALD stated that on November 22, she had been shown a rifle in the Dallas Police Department…. She stated that it was a dark color like the one that she had seen, but she did not recall the sight.

These specific details – that Marina said she had seen a rifle that was dark and scopeless – were confirmed in an affidavit (signed by Marina and Mamantov, 24 WH 219) that was taken by DPD officer B.L. Senkel (24 WH 249). They were confirmed again by Ruth Paine, who witnessed the Mamantov interview, (3 WH 82). They were confirmed again the next night in an interview of Marina by the Secret Service, translated by Mamantov’s close friend Peter Gregory. But a Secret Service transcript of the interview reveals that the source of these details was Gregory, not Marina:

(Q) This gun, was it a rifle or a pistol or just what kind of a gun? Can she answer that?

(A) It was a gun

Mr. Gregory asked: Can you describe it?

NOTE: Subject said: I cannot describe it because a rifle to me like all rifles.

Gregory translation: She said she cannot describe it. It was sort of a dark rifle just like any other common rifle…

Subject in Russian: It was a hump (or elevation) but I never saw through the scope….

Gregory translation: She says there was an elevation on the rifle but there was no scope – no telescope.

We have to conclude not just that Gregory had falsified Marina’s testimony (“a rifle to me like all rifles”); but so probably had his friend Mamantov, who later testified no less than seven times to the Warren Commission that Marina had used the word “dark” to describe the gun. There were others in Dallas who claimed that Oswald’s gun indeed had been scopeless, until Oswald had a scope installed on it by Dallas gunsmith Dial Ryder. The Warren Report elaborately refuted this corroborated claim, and concluded that “the authenticity of the repair tag” used to support it was “subject to grave doubts.” (WR 317).

We can see here, what the Warren Commission did not wish to see, signs of a conspiracy to misrepresent Marina’s testimony, and possibly to link Oswald’s gun to a dark and scopeless rifle he had in the Soviet Union. Our concerns that Mamantov misrepresented her lead us to concerns about why two Army Intelligence Reserve officers from the 488th unit (Jack Crichton and Deputy DPD Chief George Lumpkin) selected Mamantov as her interpreter. Our concerns are increased when we see that B.L. Senkel, the DPD officer who took Marina’s suspect affidavit, was the partner of F.P. Turner, who collected the dubious rifle repair tag (24 WH 328), and that both men spent most of November 22 with DPD Deputy Chief Lumpkin. For example, they were with Lumpkin in the pilot car of the motorcade when Lumpkin was communicating with Winston Lawson in the lead car behind them.

I conclude that when we look at the conduct of the two men we know to have been parts of the COG emergency communications network in Dallas, we see patterns of sinister behavior that also involved others, or what we may call conspiratorial behavior. These concatenated efforts to implicate Oswald in a phase-one conspiracy narrative lead me to propose a hypothesis for which I have neither evidence nor an alternative explanation: namely, that someone on the WHCA network may have been the source for the important unexplained description on the Dallas Police tapes of a suspect who had exactly the false height and weight (5 feet 10 inches, 165 pounds) recorded for Oswald in his FBI and CIA files.

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Second half of this article in the next post on this thread:
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 19, 2015, 02:42:27 pm
The Hidden Government Group Linking JFK, Watergate, Iran-Contra And 9/11 (second half of article in this thread)

The DPD officer contributing the description on the Police Channel was Inspector Herbert Sawyer, who allegedly had heard it from someone outside the Texas School Book Depository (TSBD) whom he could not identify or describe. The Warren Report said categorically that his source was Howard Brennan (WR 5), and that on the evening of November 22, Brennan “identified Oswald as the person in the lineup who bore the closest resemblance to the man in the window but he said that he was unable to make a positive identification” (WR 145). But there are many reasons to doubt this, starting with conflicts in Brennan’s own testimony (as Anthony Summers reported in Conspiracy, pp. 109-10) . And Ian Griggs has made a strong case that Brennan never saw Oswald in a line-up that evening. (There are police records placing Oswald in three line-ups that day, and corroborating witness reports of them; but there is no evidence whatever that Brennan attended any of the three.)

There is another strong reason to doubt that the source was Brennan. Brennan testified later to the Warren Commission that he saw his suspect in a window of the Texas School Book Depository, “standing up and leaning against the left window sill.” Pressed to describe how much of the suspect he saw, Brennan answered, “I could see probably his whole body, from his hips up. But at the time that he was firing the gun, a possibility from his belt up” (3 WH 144).

The awkwardness of Brennan’s language draws attention to the fundamental problem about the description. It is hard to imagine anyone giving a full height and weight estimate from seeing someone who was only partially visible in a window. So there are intrinsic grounds for believing the description must have come from another source. And when we see that the same description is found in Oswald’s FBI and CIA files — and nowhere else – there are reasons to suspect the source was from government secret files.

We have seen that there was interaction in Dallas between the WHCA and DPD radio channels, thanks to the WHCA portable radio that Lawson had installed in the lead car of the presidential motorcade. This radio in turn was in contact by police radio with the pilot car ahead of it, carrying Dallas Police Department (DPD) Deputy Chief Lumpkin of the 488th Army Intelligence Reserve unit. At the same time, as noted above, it was in contact with the COG nerve center at Mount Weather, Virginia. And Mount Weather had the requisite secret communications to receive information from classified intelligence files, without other parts of the government being alerted.

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Mount Weather Continuity of Government (COG) Nerve Center

Agelbert NOTE: the definition of "Government" above is, IMHO, Fossil Fuel Fascists' R' US. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) The Fascist Fox will, of course, do WHATEVER IT TAKES to ensure nobody takes away it's exploitation of the American hen yard. They are Capitalist Businessmen, after all.  ;)








Permit me at this moment an instructive digression. It is by now well established that Kennedy in 1963 was concerned enough by “the threat of far-right treason” that he urgently persuaded Hollywood director John Frankenheimer “to turn [the novel] Seven Days in May into a movie.” In this book, to quote Wikipedia, a charismatic superior officer, Air Force General James Mattoon Scott, intend(s) to stage a coup d’état …. According to the plan, an undisclosed Army combat unit known as ECOMCON (Emergency COMmunications CONtrol) will seize control of the country’s telephone, radio, and television networks, while the conspiracy directs the military and its allies in Congress and the media from “Mount Thunder” (a continuity of government base based on Mount Weather).

It is no secret also that in 1963 Kennedy had aroused major right-wing dissatisfaction, largely because of signs of his increasing rapprochement with the Soviet Union. The plot of the book and movie reflects the concern of liberals at the time about generals like General Edwin Walker, who had resigned in 1961 after Kennedy criticized his political activities in the Army. (Walker had given his troops John Birch Society literature, along with the names of right-wing candidates to vote for.) We can assume however that Kennedy had no firm evidence of a Mount Weather conspiracy: if he had, it is unlikely his response would have just been to sponsor a fictionalized movie.

It is important at this stage to point out that, although COG elements like Mount Weather were considered part of the Pentagon, the COG “government in waiting” was at no time under military control. On the contrary, President Eisenhower had ensured that it was broadly based at the top, so its planners included some of the nation’s top corporate leaders, like Frank Stanton of CBS. By all accounts of COG leadership in the decades after Reagan took office in 1981, this so-called “shadow government” still included CEOs of private corporations, like Donald Rumsfeld and Dick Cheney, as well as three former CIA directors: Richard Helms, James Schlesinger, and George Bush.

Alfonso Chardy wrote in 1987 that the “virtual parallel government” empowering North to run Iran-Contra had also developed “a secret contingency plan that called for suspension of the Constitution, turning control of the United States over to FEMA.” Subsequently North was questioned in the Iran-Contra Hearings about this charge, but was prevented by the Committee Chairman, Democratic Senator Inouye, from answering in a public session.

Later, investigating the powerful COG planning group, CNN called it “a hidden government [in the USA] about which you know nothing.” James Mann emphasized its hawkish continuity, unaffected by changes of presidency in the White House:

Cheney and Rumsfeld were, in a sense, a part of the permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States, inhabitants of a world in which Presidents come and go, but America always keeps on fighting.”

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Cheney and Rumsfeld in 1974

Going one step further, Andrew ****burn quoted a Pentagon source to support a claim that a COG planning group under Clinton was now for the first time staffed “almost exclusively with Republican hawks.” In the words of his source, “You could say this was a secret government-in-waiting. The Clinton administration was extraordinarily inattentive, [they had] no idea what was going on.”

The Pentagon official’s description of COG planners as a “secret government-in-waiting” under Clinton (which still included both Cheney and Rumsfeld) is very close to the standard definition of a cabal, as a group of persons secretly united to bring about a change or overthrow of government. A very similar situation existed under Jimmy Carter, when some of those who would later figure in Iran-Contra (notably George H.W. Bush and Theodore Shackley) worked with chiefs of foreign intelligence services (the so-called Safari Club) “to start working with [former DCI Richard] Helms [then U.S. Ambassador to Iran] and his most trusted operatives outside of Congressional and even Agency purview.” This group began by backing guerrilla forces in Africa (notably UNITA of Jonas Savimbi in Angola), which they knew would not be backed by the CIA under William Colby or Stansfield Turner.

But some of these figures, notably Alexandre de Marenches of the French spy agency SDECE, became involved with Casey, Bush, Shackley, and others in a 1980 plot – the so-called Republican “October Surprise” – to prevent the reelection of Jimmy Carter. The essence of this plot was to frustrate Carter’s efforts to repatriate the hostages seized in the U.S. Tehran Embassy, by negotiating a Republican deal with the Iranians that would be more to their liking. (The hostages in fact were returned hours after Reagan took office in 1981.)

This Republican hostage plot in 1980 deserves to be counted as a fifth structural deep event in recent US history. Unquestionably the illicit contacts with Iran established by the October Surprise Group in 1980 became, as Alfonso Chardy wrote, the “genesis” of the Iran-Contra arms deals overseen by the COG/ Mount Weather planners in 1984-86.

In an important interview with journalist Robert Parry, the veteran CIA officer Miles Copeland claimed that a “CIA within the CIA” inspired the 1980 plot, having concluded by 1980 that Jimmy Carter (in Copeland’s words) “had to be removed from the presidency for the good of the country.” Copeland made it clear to Parry that he shared this view that Carter “represented a grave threat to the nation,” and former Mossad agent Ari Ben-Menashe told Parry that Copeland himself was in fact “the conceptual father” of the 1980 arms-for-hostages deal, and had “brokered [the] Republican cooperation with Israel.” And Copeland, together with his client Adnan Khashoggi whom he advised, went on with Shackley to help launch the 1984-85 Iranian arms deals as well.

However, just as Knebel in Seven Days may have overestimated the military component in the COG Mount Weather leadership, so Copeland may have dwelt too exclusively on the CIA component behind the October Surprise Group. In The Road to 9/11, I suggested that this CIA network overlapped with a so-called “Project Alpha,” working at the time for David Rockefeller and the Chase Manhattan Bank on Iran issues, which was chaired by the veteran establishment figure John J. McCloy.

I will conclude by again quoting James Mann’s dictum that the Mount Weather COG leadership constitutes a “permanent, though hidden, national security apparatus of the United States, … a world in which Presidents come and go, but America always keeps on fighting. ”And I would like this audience to investigate whether elements of this enduring leadership, with its ever-changing mix of CIA veterans and civilian leaders, may have constituted “a secret government-in-waiting,” not just under Clinton in the 1990s, not just under Carter in 1980, but also under Kennedy in November 1963.


Footnotes


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Peter Dale Scott, Russ Baker, David Talbot, Daniel Ellsberg, Jefferson Morley at a recent lunch

[1] Peter Dale Scott, The American Deep State: Wall Street, Big Oil, and the Attack on U.S. Democracy (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2014 [forthcoming]). 1.

[2] For a partial list of anomalies between the JFK assassination and 9/11, see Peter Dale Scott, The War Conspiracy: JFK, 9/11, and the Deep Politics of War (New York: Skyhorse, 2013), 341-96.

[3] Tim Shorrock, Spies for Hire (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008), 6.

[4] Alfonso Chardy, “Reagan Aides and the Secret Government,” Miami Herald, July 5, 1987, http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9877: “Some of President Reagan’s top advisers have operated a virtual parallel government outside the traditional Cabinet departments and agencies almost from the day Reagan took office, congressional investigators and administration officials have concluded.”

[5] Iran-Contra Committee Counsel Arthur Liman, questioning Oliver North, “had North repeat his testimony that the diversion was Casey’s idea” (Arthur Liman, Lawyer: a life of counsel and controversy [New York: Public Affairs, 1998], 341).

[6] James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the abuse of America’s intelligence agencies (New York: Doubleday, 2004), 72.

[7] Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 213-14, 219-29.

[8] Bamford, A Pretext for War, 71-81.

[9] Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, All the President’s Men (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1974), 23.

[10] Jim Hougan, Secret Agenda (New York: Random House, 1984), 16. For more on WISP, see David Wise, The Politics of Lying: Government Deception, Secrecy, and Power (New York: Random House, 1973), 134-37.

[11] John Dean, Worse Than Watergate: The Secret Presidency of George W. Bush (New York: Little Brown, 2004), 120. In addition Howard Baker, in 1973 the ranking Republican member of the Senate Committee that investigated Watergate, was later  part of the COG secret leadership (CNN Special Assignment, November 17, 1991).

[12] James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans: The History of Bush’s War Cabinet (New York: Viking, 2004), 142.

[13] Warren Commission Hearings, Vol. 9, p.106 (or 9 WH 106) ; Scott, Deep Politics, 275-76; Russ Baker, Family of Secrets: The Bush Dynasty, the Powerful Forces That Put It in the White House, and What Their Influence Means for America (New York: Bloomsbury Press, 2009), 119-22.

[14] “White House Communications Agency,” Signal Corps Regimental History, http://signal150.army.mil/white_house_communications_agency.html.

[15] In the 1990s the WHCA supplied statements to the ARRB concerning communications between Dallas and Washington on November 22 (NARA #172-10001-10002 to NARA #172-10000-10008).  The Assassination Records Review Board also attempted to obtain from the WHCA the unedited original tapes of conversations from Air Force One on the return trip from Dallas, November 22, 1963. (Edited and condensed versions of these tapes had been available since the 1970s from the Lyndon Baines Johnson Library in Austin, Texas.) The attempt was unsuccessful: “The Review Board’s repeated written and oral inquiries of the White House Communications Agency did not bear fruit. The WHCA could not produce any records that illuminated the provenance of the edited tapes.” See Assassinations Records Review Board: Final Report, chapter 6, Part 1, 116, http://www.archives.gov/research/jfk/review-board/report/chapter-06-part1.pdf.

[16] 17 WH 394-95, 23 WH 841; 17 WH 368, 395; Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, 273-74, 278. The alleged epileptic walked away from the ambulance after it arrived at Highland (Warren Commission Document 1245, 6-10).

[17] Statement of Special Agent Winston E. Lawson [to Secret Service],” 17 WH 632; Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, 278.

[18] Richard Pollock, “The Mysterious Mountain,” The Progressive, March, 1976; cf. “Mount Weather’s ‘Government-in-Waiting,’” http://www.serendipity.li/jsmill/mt_weather.htm.

[19] Russ Baker, Family of Secrets, 121.

[20] Dee Garrison , Bracing for Armageddon: Why Civil Defense Never Worked

(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), 46.

[21] Warren Commission Exhibit 1778, 23 WH 383-84.

[22] Commission Document 344 – SS Howard Tape Copy of 01 Dec 1963, p. 23.

[23] Lee Harvey Oswald fingerprint card, 17 WH 308. The heaviest Oswald actually weighed was 150 pounds, when he left the Marines in 1959 (19 WH 584, 595).

[24] FBI report by Special Agent Fain, dated May 12, 1960, 17 WH 706. In the same report Marguerite named Oswald’s father as “Edward Lee Oswald.” His actual name was Robert Edward Lee Oswald (WR 669-70).

[25] Testimony of Inspector Herbert Sawyer, 6 WH 321-22:  “I remember that he was a white man and that he wasn’t young and he wasn’t old.” Cf. Dallas Police Channel Two Tape at 12:25 PM (23 WH 916).

[26] Ian Griggs, “Did Howard Leslie Brennan Really Attend an Identification Lineup?”

http://spot.acorn.net/jfkplace/09/fp.back_issues/28th_Issue/id_draft.html.

[27] Statement of Secret Service Winston Lawson, 17 WH 630: “I checked with Chief Curry as to location of Lead Car [at  Love Field] and had WHCA portable radio put in and checked.”

[28] “The lead car was in radio contact with the pilot car by police radio, and with the Presidential limousine by Secret Service portable radios” (Pamela McElwain-Brown, “The Presidential Lincoln Continental SS-100-X,” Dealey Plaza Echo, Volume 3, Issue 2, 23, http://www.maryferrell.org/mffweb/archive/viewer/showDoc.do?docId=16241&relPageId=27). Cf. Scott, Deep Politics and the Death of JFK, 272-75 (Lumpkin).

[29] David Talbot, Brothers: the hidden history of the Kennedy years (New York: Free Press, 2007), 148.

[30] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_Days_in_May.

[31] Jonathan M. Schoenwald, A time for choosing: the rise of modern American conservatism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), .

[32] Hope Yen, “Eisenhower Letters Reveal Doomsday Plan: Citizens Tapped to Take Over in Case of Attack,” AP, Deseret News, March 21, 2004, http://www.deseretnews.com/article/595050502/Eisenhower-letters-reveal-doomsday-plan.html?pg=all.

[33] CNN Special Assignment, November 17, 1991.

[34] Alfonso Chardy, “Reagan Aides and the Secret Government,” Miami Herald, July 5, 1987, http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9877: “Some of President Reagan’s top advisers have operated a virtual parallel government outside the traditional Cabinet departments and agencies almost from the day Reagan took office, congressional investigators and administration officials have concluded.”

[35] Iran-Contra Committee Counsel Arthur Liman, questioning Oliver North, “had North repeat his testimony that the diversion was Casey’s idea” (Arthur Liman, Lawyer: a life of counsel and controversy [New York: Public Affairs, 1998], 341). Cf. The “October Surprise” allegations and the circumstances surrounding the release of the American hostages held in Iran: report of the Special Counsel to Senator Terry Sanford and Senator James M. Jeffords of the Committee on Foreign Relations, United States Senate, Volume 4, p. 33 (October Surprise Group).

[36] CNN Special Assignment, November 17, 1991.

[37] James Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 145.

[38] Andrew ****burn, Rumsfeld: His Rise, Fall, and Catastrophic Legacy (New York: Scribner, 2007), 88.

[39] Joseph J. Trento, Prelude to terror: the rogue CIA and the legacy of America’s private intelligence network (New York: Carroll & Graf, 2005), 61.

[40] Piero Gleijeses, Visions of Freedom: Havana, Washington, Pretoria and the struggle for Southern Africa, 1976-1991 (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, [2013]), 66-68; Elaine Windrich, “The Laboratory of Hate: The Role of Clandestine Radio in the Angolan War,” International Journal of Cultural Studies 3(2), 2000.

[41] Alfonso Chardy, “Reagan Aides and the Secret Government,” Miami Herald, July 5, 1987, http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9877: “The group, led by campaign foreign policy adviser Richard Allen, was founded out of concern Carter might pull off an “October surprise” such as a last-minute deal for the release of the hostages before the Nov. 4 election. One of the group’s first acts was a meeting with a man claiming to represent Iran who offered to release the hostages to Reagan.

Allen — Reagan’s first national security adviser— and another campaign aide, Laurence Silberman, told The Herald in April of the meeting. they said McFarlane, then a Senate Armed Services Committee aide, arranged and attended it. McFarlane later became Reagan’s national security adviser and played a key role in the Iran-contra affair. Allen and Silberman said they rejected the offer to release the hostages to Reagan.” [The Iranian was Houshang Lavi, and after Lavi’s death Robert Parry confirmed from Lavi’s diary that the meeting did take place].

[42] Alfonso Chardy, “Reagan Aides and the Secret Government,” Miami Herald, July 5, 1987, http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=9877.

[43] “America’s False History Allows the Powerful to Commit Crimes Without Consequence,” Mark Karlin Interview of Robert Parry, January 15, 2013, Truthout Interview, http://www.truth-out.org/progressivepicks/item/13904-americas-false-history-allows-the-powerful-to-commit-crimes-without-consequence.

[44] Robert Parry, Trick or Treason, 175.

[45] Peter Dale Scott, The Road to 9/11: Wealth, Empire, and the Future of America

(Berkeley: University of California Press, 2007), 81-83, 88. A key figure was CIA veteran and Copeland friend Archibald Roosevelt, in 1980 a Carter foe and also  employee of the Chase Manhattan Bank.

[46] Mann, Rise of the Vulcans, 145.

see more at: http://whowhatwhy.com/2014/10/05/the-hidden-government-group-linking-jfk-watergate-iran-contra-and-911/#sthash.sATV1hsH.dpuf

http://www.constantinereport.com/hidden-government-group-linking-jfk-watergate-iran-contra-911/

Agelbert NOTE: He is almost there (or he is just not ready to write pre-JFK stuff yet even though he knows it well.  8)).  The Secret Government, IMHO, got it's POWER to control ALL of American politics and media from the Manhattan Project.

WHY? Because it BIRTHED the MONSTER called the Military Industrial Complex. Yes, we had a M.I.C. run BY and FOR BIG OIL and a lot of attacks on democracy before that.

HOWEVER, the SECRECY protected by force under the "national security" clever contrivance is what ENABLED the M.I.C. to go out an buy or bop the media and politicians. Fascism NEEDS SECRECY to grow its cancerous tentacles and choke democracy. The Manhattan Project gave the fascist fox full power over the hen yard. Fascism, because it is psychopathic, cruel and exploitive, destroys any country it gets a foothold in.

Representative Republic democracy is long gone in the USA.  :(  Fascism is now in the terminal cancer, in your face profit over people and planet, stage of destroying everything of value in this country.

Government enforced secrecy is DEADLY to any type of freedom, period. There is NO EXCUSE for secrecy in government, PERIOD. And SECRECY, by the way, is considered ESSENTIAL to predatory capitalist profits...

But what about NATIONAL SECURTY?  ???
Quote

“The welfare of humanity is always the alibi of tyrants.”

― Albert Camus

The only "SECURITY" TPTB care about is their own.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221014222208.png&hash=ae35994d8acc44c5bd0794f40f9d513715a7159f)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080814213147.png&hash=8caa9e70560c86d7f1e8f5c50cee91c97d9859f1)

Have a nice day.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 19, 2015, 05:15:44 pm

Off the keyboard of John Ward

Follow us on Twitter @doomstead666 Friend us on Facebook

Published on The Slog on April 19, 2015

Discuss this article at the Geopolitics Table inside the Diner

ANALYSIS: Why the standoff between Greece and the EU is really the first major battle in the war between Yesterday and Tomorrow

As the days drag on towards some kind of dénouement to what is rapidly becoming the silliest, longest and most empty threat of a death sentence in political history, I continue to be amazed that the Western media are reporting the Greece-eurogroupe ‘deadlock’ as if it was a purely technical matter.

There are only two elements of the ‘crisis’ that concern me: the emotional dimension of an at times infuriating but fundamentally sound culture I’ve loved for over forty years being pelted by a salvo of Brussels sprouts, controlling sauerkrats, and past-sell-by date Frankfurters; and the former politics student’s fascination with the factions and rivalries on both sides.

If you’re a Python nut like me, then you will remember the Life of Brian sequence where Graham Chapman innocently asks the anal splinter-group leader Michael Palin if “we” are the People’s Group for the Liberation of Palestine, and Palin snaps back, “Are you f**king mad? We f**kin’ spit on the PGLOP. We, my friend, are the People’s Army for Palestine Liberation. There’s a world of difference”.

Sadly, a great deal of contemporary in-fighting between Middle East opponents of the US, Israel and NATO have proved in the 36 years since that movie how madness will eventually – somewhere – become reality. But it is also one of the strongest arguments against large States like Europe, China, the US and Russia that the citizens reach a point where a substantial minority no longer feel any affection for the much-vaunted body. For them, it’s more of a cadaver: a giant corpse they simple cannot remember as the flower of their youth.

More and more, this anthropological reality both colours and muddies European affairs.

The current impasse/standoff/crisis/negotiation is not – let’s get this straight for starters – a conflict between the EU and Greece. It is not even a war between national liberty and superstate dictatorship.

Rather, it’s the first battle in what could be a long war between yesterday and tomorrow. And be aware: the battle is no way as simple as ‘EU yesterday vs Greek tomorrow': this is a battle in which there are more false flags, civil wars around the edges and power struggles going on than in the emerging Nazi Party of 1931.

*********************

Let’s deal quickly with my first concern: although depicted as the punishment of corrupt Greek politicians, backhanding officials and tax-evading taverna owners, none of that is even closely related to the facts. Far from punishing Nia Demokratia, PASOK and their serially unpleasant leaders, the Troika has insisted from Day One that it will only deal with these gargoyles. This is the same principle as hanging the war criminals at Nuremburg….up to but not including rocket scientists the victors wanted on their sides.

Germany largely benefited from corrupt officials (especially during the various insane arms deals with Greece) rather than suffering in any way; and precious few of those Fat Crats have been brought to justice….although Syriza is now on the case.

And finally, small businesses evade tax in Greece because the tax system is corrupt, not through greed in many cases: they know that every pol and bureacrat wants a kafelaki (small envelope). And people evade the Troika taxes today because they see them for what they are: a disgraceful attempt to pick the pocket of the vagrant in the gutter. I live in France now, and I’ve visited Greece between forty and fifty times in the last half-century; everything I see related to le noir francais is exactly the same as in Greece – except for one thing: it’s a far bigger problem in France.

I’m told by some that the desire to evade tax became an act of patriotic resistance during the Ottoman hegemony over Greece, but that was a long, long time ago: more accurate, I think, is the phrase used to me over and over again: “It’s a national sport”….and the trophy is nothing more than sticking it to the depraved elites that have been sitting on real Greeks for decades.

The punishment meted out by the Troika fits not the crime, but the greed, geopolitical ambitions and cynical control freakery of its three prongs – Wall Street, the US/EU, and Berlin/ECB interest groups. This is far from empty conspiracist assertion: the investment banking firms and Hedge Funds got clean away with a fat profit during the initial bailouts, Schäuble stands accused of conspiring with Venizelos to exaggerate the size of debt hole in 2010, a German-controlled and run concept of Fiskalunion has emerged directly from this totally unnecessary mess, the federalisation of the EU has been accelerated, and above all the euro was saved to die another day.

Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal are on Calvary at the moment, but they’re dying to cleanse a worthless currency of its flaws, not to save anyone’s soul. And no amount of crucifixions from here to Warsaw via Budapest are going to remove the euro’s flaws.

Greece is saddled with an obscene debt and carpet-bombed economic structure because Schäuble wanted to convince the markets of eurozone viability, Trichet’s borrowing controls were hopelessly lax, Goldman wanted to sell credit, Sarkozy was terrified of the effect on his banks, and Berlin wanted – plus ca change – to run Europe using the best alternative to military force: the munnneeee.

There is little difference in general substance between QE and Zirp killing economies across the globe, and ClubMed austerity killing most of the ezone economy: except of course, the one in Germany. Gott in Himmel: perish the thought that such a thing might occur.

*********************

Nobody in the neoliberal owned and controlled press is ever going to accept that version of events, no matter how empirically databased it is. But no other explanation can explain the consistent actions of those in charge of the fiscal policies involved….policies that cannot possibly be related to sound economic actions – or even sound minds.

The mistake many observers and commentators make is to get the motive for the Greek tragedy wrong: get it right, and everything makes complete sense. Read the MSM account, and none of it does.

However, as I pointed out at the start of this mini-essay, there’s no simple tug-of-war going on. The best analogy I can summon up for the moment is to see the EU/ECB/Berlin attack on Greece as akin to Abe Lincoln deciding to attack Samuria-Shogun-Meiji fractured Japan just after the first Battle of Bull Run.

The two ‘sides’ in 2015 square up as follows:

EC vs Eurogroupe vs Frankfurt vs IMF vs ECB vs Berlin vs Paris vs UK

vs

Syriza vs KKE vs PASOK vs Nia Demokrita vs Golden Dawn vs To Potami vs ephiles vs ephobes

Without getting into too much detail, Jean-Claude Junker’s power base is the EC. Inside that, he has an anti-austerity rebuilding fund of allegedly €350bn, whose purpose he has kept deliberately vague. He befriended Alexis Tsipras, and could shaft the eurogroupe royally if he decided to invest it in Greece on a bigger scale than at present. This is because the eurogroupe’s attempt to wrest power from Juncker gets up his nasal orifice – and threatens the Cyprus-style tax evasion racket he runs in Luxembourg.

But the Frankfurt Bundesbank hardliners think the eurogroupe and its ally the ECB will have a disastrous effect on money supply and inflation via QE…plus (they assert) it was a mistake to let the US-controlled IMF and its mathematically dyslexic boss Christine Lagarde loose anywhere in Europe. In Berlin, however, Schäuble wants to have total control over the reins of euro-fiscal policy, and so would do anything to vapourise ECB boss Mario Draghi…while Chancellor Merkel (whom Schäuble dislikes, but who has the electoral appeal he lacks) has similar doubts to me about what Draghi’s really up to: is he working for the euro, or is he working for its replacement, the Dolleuro?

Paris, meanwhile, is infinitely more guilty of fiscal vandalism than Greece (as are Germany and Holland) but is no longer avoiding the consequences of its soi-largesse with quite the ease it was. The French Establishment has been rattled by some of the fiscal disciplinary methods imposed on France after the March eurogroupe summit: but Berlin must beware of pushing too many French voters towards the undiluted anti-EU nationalism of Marine Le Pen’s Front Nationale.

And last but not least, dear old Blighty stuck out there in the island limbo of “Ukip if you want to, but we’re wide awake, and we want out”.

You may think the Sceptred Isle doesn’t count, but I would suggest you’re wrong. At the moment, the Eunatics face threats on four ClubMed fronts, interference from the US, and an allegedly weak Putinesque Russia which suggests that it isn’t either weak or stupid. The last thing the EU elites need is to roil the markets with a secession request from Britain in 2018….even if it is only England by then.

This does, I think, go a long way to explaining why Draghi has of late switched tack, and begun persuading his ‘colleagues’ that the time is not yet quite right for the Greeks to default. Much smart money had been targeting April 26th as the moment of truth for Athens. But yesterday the ECB boss told a Washington audience that he “won’t even contemplate” the possibility of a Greek default on its debt repayments during April, because such an event would throw the eurozone into “uncharted waters.” This from the man who six weeks ago claimed that Greek default would be no more than a gnat-bite on the bum for eurobanks…because this time, the system “is prepared”. Yeh, right: that must be why he arm-twisted the ELA into coughing up the liquidity to help Greece pay off the last IMF kilo of flesh, sorry, installment.

Far more money is now being placed on a Greek default on or after May 9th. And spookily, that just happens to be two days after the UK General Election finishes. I think it would be safe to say that – were a Greek default to throw everything into European bond-spiking confusion before April 26th – there would be a massive Ukip surge, as well as potential pressure on the UK’s George Osborne in terms of borrowing rates. The continued UK national debt explosion is, after all, the Chancellor’s Achilles heel.

So there you have it. Or rather, you don’t: because twixt you, me, the gatepost and the other girls, trying to discern 8 x 8 possibilities producing 64 possible outcomes (when any new left-field factor could make that 4096 scenarios) is the original mug’s game.

Much better, I’d opine, to stick to the basics. And I’ve remained consistent about these since this rapidly dwindling time-window began last February 24th.

Those who would rather have a meteorite collide with Earth than give up on the euro project have far, far more to lose than a nation of 11.5m people who would (in my view) be much better off deserting the euro. But there remains that Greek inferiority complex pride thing of not wanting to be the catalyst of destroying a single market that acts as an economic and political bulwark against American multinational domination of the Globe.

I think that viewpoint to be muddled, but then I’m not Greek, or foraging in the Athens garbage cans. My gut feeling is that Varoufakis underestimated the Cosa Nostra nastiness of those with whom he must deal, and Troika2 underestimated the fatigue of the Hellenic population at large with being made a scapegoat.

Either way, a lot of very sour derivative bets placed on euro success cannot be allowed to trigger an omni-directional bazooka aimed at Wall Street. Sorry to repeat myself, but I still think the high face-cards are in the Greek hand.

Quote
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-106.gif&hash=f996659d18df7f3b445e6135e884397ac91f25b1)The punishment meted out by the Troika fits not the crime, but the greed, geopolitical ambitions and cynical control freakery of its three prongs – Wall Street, the US/EU, and Berlin/ECB interest groups. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Ftuzki-bunnys%2Ftuzki-bunny-emoticon-028.gif&hash=24570cb7e8246617010ce900a07bc85117ff78ca)

👍

Quote
I still think the high face-cards are in the Greek hand.
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 20, 2015, 02:17:56 pm
What do TPTB KNOW that they aren't telling us? Norad moving back to the BUNKER.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UAeqVGP-GPM&feature=player_embedded

Why IS the US military moving back into ‘Stargate’ base deep under the Rocky Mountains a decade after it was abandoned?  ???

Shut down nearly ten years ago as the threat from Russia seemed to subside.  ;)

The Cheyenne Mountain Complex is one of the icons of the Cold War – a self-contained and sufficient town buried under the Rockies meant to be impervious to a Soviet nuclear barrage.

It was home to the North American Aerospace Command (NORAD), scanning the skies for Russian missiles and the military command and control center of the United States in the event of World War Three.

The high tech base entered popular culture with appearances in the 1983 Cold War thriller War Games and 1994’s Stargate – which imagined the complex as a clandestine home for intergalactic travel.
It shut down nearly ten years ago as the threat from Russia seemed to subside, but this week the Pentagon announced that Cheyenne Mountain will once again be home to the most advanced tracking and communications equipment in the United States military.

The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command’s sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said.
http://rt.com/usa/247729-pentagon-bunker-cold-war//

TOMORROW IS YESTERDAY:  :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ6BiRtGTAk&feature=player_embedded

Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove
Published on Mar 18, 2013
Quote

Inside the Making of Dr. Strangelove A behind-the-scenes documentary about the making of one of the classics of modern cinema. Including interviews with many members of the cast and crew of this story about the scramble by the heads of state to head off a rogue general's attempt to launch a nuclear war, this film gives fans a wealth of new information on the work and effort that went into bringing the film to fruition. Written by Jean-Marc Rocher.

Agelbert NOTE: They made this movie WITHOUT the cooperation of the U.S. Air Force. When representatives of the USAF were invited to see the rushes, they went white when they saw the method devised for the "fail safe" black boxes. A few days later, they were advised that if the "sources of information" for the film were classified, the producers and writers were in serious legal trouble and an FBI investigation would ensue.

But it gets BETTER. While filming high altitude cold weather flying, they stumbled on a secret U.S. base and had fighter jets scrambled on their aircraft!

This is a virtual tour de force which, WITHOUT ACTUALLY SAYING SO, explains the psychology of everybody in power today that is doing all they can to get a war going. I'm surprised this video has been allowed to remain out there.

What is NOT SAID here, however, is that Kubrick KNEW about the RAND Corporation's "estimate" of nuclear war casualties and their "assessment" sent to the Joint Chief's of Staff at the Pentagon stating that a nuclear war (with the U.S. making the first strike) was "winnable".

Stanley Kubrick KNEW EXACTLY how the Continuity of Government (COB) M.I.C. think NOW, not just THEN. Their motto is "Better to reign in HELL than to serve in HEAVEN" (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0). GET IT?

You don't? You think these Ivy League Spawned Criminals are RATIONAL? Here's the short version of what they are:

THEY ARE SUICIDAL MANIACS! And YOU did NOT elect them!

Have a nice day.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2015, 04:30:28 pm
http://nepalrastra.blogspot.com/2014/02/haarp-facility-shut-down.html (http://nepalrastra.blogspot.com/2014/02/haarp-facility-shut-down.html)

HAARP Facility Shut Down! 

The HAARP facility in Gakona, Alaska has shut down pending its transfer to a different contractor working for DARPA. The official statement reads:

HAARP was shut down in early May 2013, awaiting a change between contractors who operate the facility. According to HAARP program manager James Keeney, "Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is expected on site as a client to finish up some research in fall 2013 and winter 2014." The temporary shutdown was described as being due to "a contractor regime change." The Alaska Native corporation Ahtna, Incorporated is reportedly in talks to take over the facility administration contract from Marsh Creek, LLC.

Supporters of the HAARP program now say that claims of crazy weather patterns, earthquakes and mental illness can no longer be blamed on the operation of this remote facility because it is "off-line".

 It is a fact that the HAARP facility in Gakona was only a public relations facade which distracted from the larger facility near Fairbanks and the many other "ionospheric heaters" located around the country -- and the world -- that no longer use dipole antennae farms and receive their funding as "black projects", exempt from public scrutiny or review.

 We featured such a facility in China in a recent story on viewzone. The new antennae designs are apparently more efficient at the high frequencies which the "heaters" utilize.


Introduction to H.A.A.R.P.

by Dan Eden

Many articles have been written about HAARP. What this author wishes to make clear is that he believes HAARP was not the actual facility designed to be used as a military system but a "front" or "red herring" facility which allows the authorities to deny important questions about its purpose and operation and which conducted basic research with its limited power of about 3MW.

 The real facility is located in Poker Flats, North of Fairbanks, Alaska. Please read the Congressional Executive Summary which is provided here in unedited form for the truth.

Some background on HAARP & How it works


 Albert Einstein's theories of relativity and the development of atomic energy are seen as the pinnacles of Twentieth Century technology. Like most innovative applications of newly discovered laws of physics, the benefit that they afford the common citizen is often usurped by the sinister need of the military to kill each other or ruin the environment -- all in the name of security.

Bernard Eastlund's discoveries, are innovative applications of the work of Tesla and Faraday. His plans to provide power on any spot on the planet, to modify weather and eliminate drought, floods and hurricanes was usurped by the US military to make a death ray.

 Bernard Eastlund is a very private man and a physicist with a small company in Houston. In the mid-80's, Eastlund invented and patented a technology that will will reshape our lives, for better or for worse, whether we like it or not.

 A few years ago, ViewZone ran a photograph that was sent to us for identification (see Unusual Photographs). We received many wild explanations, from underground alien bases to ancient city streets. But a handful of anonymous e-mails were consistent. These described the long, parallel, perfectly straight lines as part of an antenna complex used to communicate with submerged submarines. These same e-mails spoke of "death rays" that could blast distant locations with lethal electromagnetic radiation.

 The photograph was eventually believed to be an ELF (an acronym for Extremely Low Frequency) antenna installation, designed for submarine communication. There is one almost identical to the photograph in Michigan. Since our anonymous informants seemed to be so knowledgeable, we were curious about their claims of a "death ray" installation located somewhere in Alaska. Our informants directed our attention to something called HAARP (High Frequency Active Aurora Ionospheric Research Program).

 HAARP is a military project based on Eastlund's discoveries. It is a difficult program to discuss technically with non-scientists and, as such, it has eluded the spotlight of the popular press. But for years now, conspiracy web sites and some credible scientific publications have questioned what's going on and how messing with the ionosphere could be hurting the environment.

 To make matters worse, HAARP has been maintained partially as a clandestine project, operated by the US Navy. The information that is made available to the public is carefully worded to make HAARP appear as a bland, harmless, unclassified, atmospheric research facility.

 This public image is maintained, in part, through a website (Note: It appears they have taken the web site "off-line" also!), complete with a reassuring, updated, digital photograph, showing dozens of motionless aluminum dipole antennae at their remote Alaskan base. Public statements speak about "better understanding the ionosphere," a layer of Earth's atmosphere about 60-90 Km. high.

 They are polite when questioned, but stick to their "harmless research" stories, despite contradictions in the press and in publicly available documents. In preparation for this article, ViewZone contacted HAARP. Not only did they deny that the facility was doing military work, but they also diminished the work of Dr. Eastlund, implying that he knew very little about his own discovery. (In contrast to now admitting that they do DARPA work.)

 Eventually everyone will know about Bernard Eastlund and his work. It will someday be taught in schools. His technology will impact every living thing. But this will have to wait for the military, who own his valuable patents, to release Eastlund's work for humane applications. For the time being, this work is buried in the secretive work of HAARP.

 To completely understand Eastlund's work, you must first understand how and why HAARP works. This is not an easy task. But we'll try to keep it simple.

Posted 16th February 2014 by Sagar

Labels: सूचना प्रविधि

http://nepalrastra.blogspot.com/2014/02/haarp-facility-shut-down.html (http://nepalrastra.blogspot.com/2014/02/haarp-facility-shut-down.html)



Agelbert NOTE: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a federal agency focused on the condition of the oceans and the atmosphere.

BUT FOR SOME INTERESTING REASON, H.A.A.R.P is run by Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), an agency of the U.S. Department of Defense  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)
.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2015, 05:45:59 pm
America's most well armed and organized STREET GANG  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-misc-023.gif&hash=ddc2b379e61a9a18d00bb8306e2c67c2ffd6f176)


America's most well armed and organized STREET GANG is composed mainly of VETERANS of the TRADITIONAL U.S. MILITARY policy of having absolutely no regard for human life (AND BRAGGING ABOUT IT TOO.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVmGWLsn0iM&feature=player_embedded

What goes around, comes around.

Our CRIMiNAL "Justice" SYSTEM knows EXACTLY what it is doing and WHY it is doing it (i.e. the M.I.C. profit over planet MO - see below). Yes, it looks Orwellian. Yes, it looks like cognitive dissonant mindfu ck. But, it is really quite a consistent with the M.I.C. world view.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2z6in9g.gif&hash=771b084a0f186d9cc14f31defd98a6c90b69b84f)



Bradley Manning sentenced to 35 years in WikiLeaks case (http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/judge-to-sentence-bradley-manning-today/2013/08/20/85bee184-09d0-11e3-b87c-476db8ac34cd_story.html) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil12.gif&hash=d1822754cefdd0f77369dacd157d00f5f8d3fff9)


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PvmfOaZ34Pk&feature=player_embedded
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 26, 2015, 08:42:27 pm
New budget of 25 million for HAARP type High Frequency arrays (HF / VHF)

February 5, 2015 tatoott@yahoo.com

Here we are in 2015 a full year after they announced a temporary “closure” of the HF (high frequency) facility in Gakona, AK — and we come to find out that the only thing that changed up in Alaska is the NAME of the facility.

The US Navy has requested 25 million for a few UNNAMED high frequency (HF) Arrays for the fiscal year of 2015. Specifically to do the same type of experiments that the HAARP program was doing!

Obviously, there are only a few places on US soil where these polar facilities can exist, thus we know the “array” being talked about is the only array we know of… the IRI antenna array in Gakona (slang termed the HAARP antennas).

http://tatsrevolution.com/new-budget-of-25-million-for-haarp-type-high-frequency-arrays-hf-vhf/ (http://tatsrevolution.com/new-budget-of-25-million-for-haarp-type-high-frequency-arrays-hf-vhf/)

Quote
No longer to be called H.A.A.R.P. — the program has been disbanded — now replaced with a more general term of High Frequency ‘Array’.  ;)

The “program” ends, but the antenna facilities go on to future uses. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

I suppose HAARP is now to be called the Alaskan High Frequency Array (HFA?!)

The High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program (HAARP) was/is part of a network of arrays being used worldwide, and surely not the last to be built.

No doubt about it now, they’ve allocated money for the same experiments, at the same facilities. Just dropped the program name of “HAARP”.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

http://tatsrevolution.com/new-budget-of-25-million-for-haarp-type-high-frequency-arrays-hf-vhf/ (http://tatsrevolution.com/new-budget-of-25-million-for-haarp-type-high-frequency-arrays-hf-vhf/)


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 27, 2015, 05:04:21 pm
Cartoon: Death & Destruction, Inc.  

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/04/24/1379662/-Cartoon-Death-Destruction-Inc
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 09, 2015, 02:43:21 pm
Anthony Freda.

(https://scontent-iad.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xat1/v/t1.0-9/11230227_980391981984983_3016159771107748711_n.jpg?oh=cee791eaa1f11115b0bdfa8f8c5f5858&oe=55C1DEB9)

Democracy don't rule the world, you better get that through your head. This world is ruled by violence, but I guess that's better left unsaid." B. Dylan

http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals-least-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror (http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/03/26/body-count-report-reveals-least-13-million-lives-lost-us-led-war-terror)

Yep.  :(
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 12, 2015, 07:00:34 pm
Mon May 11, 2015 at 09:41 AM PDT.

Pope Francis: 'Many powerful people don't want peace because they live off war'

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/05/11/1384007/-Pope-Francis-Many-powerful-people-don-t-want-peace-because-they-live-off-war

Agelbert NOTE: Two sides of the SAME Profit over Planet COIN. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil19.gif&hash=6eeb0dbc471743691793f5130640fdcbd1f77b5c)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.seedsofdoubt.com%2Fimages%2Fbushs-war-business2.jpg&hash=b97873d9391e83b9882f079984db4cbdf690a1b4)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-8lLqXmO11e8%2FUr31Tt8n48I%2FAAAAAAAAZkc%2FFFlmfS0ikUQ%2Fs1600%2FThanksObama.jpg.jpg&hash=fa8705886a3cb55b4753a0d851559e96c31569d9)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 15, 2015, 06:44:50 pm
The Crisis Within Activism is a Crisis Within Democracy   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F129fs238648.gif&hash=bbf8ad9cbaff9e7d3097c40c21a931e6649a237f)

Micah White, PhD  “Shift the paradigms of protest!”

Quote
CC: Can the internet become something more than a network in which feelings are spread?

MW: There is a hope that perhaps the Internet allows us an electronic democracy. That's the idea of the 5 Star Movement in Italy. Participants use the internet to decide on legislation and to select candidates for the elections. The idea of the Internet enabling collective decision-making is very interesting, but difficult to achieve.

CC:
Some people prefer digital activism to the street. What do you think?

MW:
In the early stages, the Internet is very important for social movements. However, over time, the Internet becomes harmful because things start to look better online than in real life. This happened with Occupy. The protest looked better on Facebook than it did in the streets. This is negative because people start to prefer the online experience to the real world. So the Internet is a double-edged sword. The internet is a weapon that is not fully under our control, and it is very difficult to wield effectively.

CC: Do you believe that the advance of neoliberalism has helped reduce the importance of social movements around the world?

MW:
Protests are a form of war and war is politics by other means. Protests are ways of influencing the political system by unconventional methods. And the revolution is a change in the legal regime. It is transforming what is legal into something illegal or making what is illegal legal. If social movements are a form of warfare then it is clear that the forces that are in power will use all possible means to destroy social movements. The problem is activists do not see their protests in the context of war. We see them as a big party or something, while the other side realizes the importance of the event.  Above all, however, it is crucial not blame others. We must blame ourselves. Social movements do not fail because the police are very strong. Throughout history, people have overthrown governments with a much stronger police, either because they found a way to defeat them in the streets or because they managed to get the police to change sides. So when our protests fail it is because our theory of change was wrong and not because the other side was stronger.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdkqotfAStM&feature=player_embedded

https://www.micahmwhite.com/crisis-in-activism-interview
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 23, 2015, 09:29:54 pm
Mon Jun 22, 2015 at 11:40 AM EDT.

Pope Francis points out hypocrisy of manufacturing weapons and calling yourself Christian (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)
 


by
Walter Einenkel

Pope Francis continues doing and saying wild and crazy things. No, he didn't meet with LGBT activists in South America again. This time he decided to point out some of the hypocrisy of "Christians" for whom Christian-like acts seem anathema.

Francis issued his toughest condemnation to date of the weapons industry at a rally of thousands of young people at the end of the first day of his trip to the Italian city of Turin.
 [...]

Quote
"It makes me think of ... people, managers, businessmen who call themselves Christian and they manufacture weapons. That leads to a bit a [sic] distrust, doesn't it?" he said to applause.

He also criticized those who invest in weapons industries, saying "duplicity is the currency of today ... they say one thing and do another."

Yeah, it does lead to a bit of distrust, Pope Francis.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/06/22/1394476/-Pope-Francis-points-out-hypocrisy-of-manufacturing-weapons-and-calling-yourself-Christian
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 08, 2015, 10:43:18 pm
US Government Insider Prepared To Testify Against US Government For Their Prime Role In The 9/11 Attacks

Quote
Dr. Steve R. Pieczenik served as Deputy Assistant Secretary of State under Henry Kissinger, Cyrus Vance, and James Baker. 

He recently had an interview (audio available below) with Alex Jones to discuss the recent Osama Bin Laden hoax, and how Bin Laden had been dead for years.

 Toward the latter part of the interview he drops a bombshell about the September 11th 2001 attacks of the World Trade Center.  That he had inside information from a top General at the time that the attacks were not only known ahead of time by the US Government, but, as many of us have been saying for years, completely planned by the US Government, and that he is prepared to testify before a Federal Grand Jury with all of this information. 

He mentioned many people involved in the planning of the attacks including George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and many more.  The 9/11 information begins at audio mark 01:00:35.

 It’s a great interview overall, Dr Pieczenik has the spirit every American needs.

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http://blog.thedrahos.net/2011/05/us-government-insider-prepared-to-testify-against-us-government-for-their-prime-role-in-the-911-attacks/

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 11, 2015, 01:57:42 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daNr_TrBw6E&feature=player_embedded
General of all American Intelligence: 911 was a fraud!




https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07Bn_CC_mrg&feature=player_embedded
The 9/11 video that was aired once and never aired again.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 11, 2015, 04:42:52 pm
‘Guerrilla Warfare Against a Hegemonic Power’: The Challenge and Promise of Greece

http://www.truthdig.com/report/page3/guerrilla_warfare_against_a_hegemonic_power_the_challenge_20150710

Agelbert Comment:
Ellen, you have been making perfect sense about banking issues for over a decade. But the problem is not that the EU or the US hegemonic type mens rea modus operandi of these bankers is due to ignorance which is financially counter productive; the problem is that they ARE MAFIA. The criminal mafia is PEANUTS compared to these Empathy Deficit Disordered financiers.

There is ZERO reason to respect the troika bankers. They are criminals, period.
Greece should go the electronic money route for goods and services in country NOW. If you sell your house, you get a check. You can use that check to buy local with a debit card, The currency can be Drachmas, Dollars, Euros or seashells for that matter.

People will look at your house and price it accordingly. Sellers of local products will do the same. This is not hard.

SCREW the creditors and bond holders. It's time for Greece to get real about their own version of Empathy Deficit Disordered in house greed balls that keep degrading the country, as well as the ones outside the country in the Troika.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 14, 2015, 12:34:18 am
Pope Francis Tells World Youth to Rise Up Against Global Capitalism (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

Lauren McCauley, CommonDreams | July 13, 2015 1:52 pm

The latest call for a youth uprising against global capitalism came not from grassroots groups, but from the leader of the Catholic Church, who on Sunday gave a rousing speech during which he told a crowd of young people in Paraguay that it is their time to “make a mess.”

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fecowatch.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F07%2Fpopegreed650.jpg&hash=474df2912ea078c680b7bef6cf8feaf89b787ab3)

The address marked the end of Pope Francis’ week-long pilgrimage to Latin America, during which he also assailed the prevailing economic system as the “dung of the devil,” saying that the systemic “greed for money” is a “subtle dictatorship” that “condemns and enslaves men and women.”

During Sunday’s rally, which was held on the banks of the Paraguay River outside the capital Asunción, the Argentinian pontiff went off-script as he addressed tens of thousands of local youth.

“They wrote a speech for me to give you. But speeches are boring,” Pope Francis said. “Make a mess, but then also help to tidy it up. A mess which gives us a free heart, a mess which gives us solidarity, a mess which gives us hope.”

He also encouraged those present to look at their less fortunate peers, some of whom he met earlier in the day during a visit to the Banado Norte shantytown, and spoke of the connection between authentic liberty and responsibility and the necessity of fighting for the right to lead a dignified life.

“We don’t want young weaklings. We do not want young people who tire quickly, who live life worn out with faces of boredom. We want youths with hope and strength,” Francis told the crowd.

Pope Francis’ South American visit comes just week after the release of his Papal Encyclical, which many hailed as a “radical statement,” in which he told leaders of the Catholic Church that there is a moral imperative for addressing climate change.

http://ecowatch.com/2015/07/13/pope-francis-rise-up-global-capitalism/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on August 22, 2015, 06:11:42 pm
https://gowans.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/cubas-low-level-of-internet-use-not-a-policy-of-restricting-the-flow-of-information/ (https://gowans.wordpress.com/2015/08/22/cubas-low-level-of-internet-use-not-a-policy-of-restricting-the-flow-of-information/)
Cuba’s Low Level of Internet Use: Not a Policy of Restricting the Flow of Information
Stephen Gowans
August 22, 2015

If you want to find examples of governments restricting the flow of information on the internet for political purposes, look to the United States and its allies, and not to the low-level of internet use in Cuba, which, notwithstanding press reports to the contrary, is a consequence of Cuba’s comparatively low-level of economic development, not communist ‘totalitarianism.’

Part of the dogma of capitalist societies is that communist states are inherently restrictive and ‘totalitarian’, in contrast to liberal democracies, which are portrayed as beacons of liberty. Communist states, we’re told, suppress dissent, while capitalist states allow it to flourish. This, of course, is nonsense. All states, regardless of how they’re organized economically, suppress dissent under circumstances of grave threat, and relax repression as danger diminishes. Those that are the most free, are those that face the least danger. Highly restrictive societies are typically highly threatened. The restrictions in the Soviet Union from its birth in 1917 to its collapse in 1991 are pointed to as proof of the totalitarian nature of communism (or “Stalinism”), but the reality that the country was in a permanent state of crisis is ignored, and restrictive measures have long been recognized as legitimate and necessary under emergency conditions, including in liberal theory and practice. Wave after wave of aggression crashed against the Soviet Union from its birth until its collapse. These included the aggressions of Wilhelmine Germany, the intervention of the Entente powers in the Civil War, Japan’s harassment of Soviet borders in the 1930s, the invasion of Nazi Germany, the Cold War, and Reagan’s program of spending the Soviets into bankruptcy. The objective of each aggression was the total annihilation of the communist state.

Totalitarianism has not been a stranger to liberal democracies either. Despite being sheltered by two oceans, having no hostile powers on its borders, and facing no realistic threat of invasion, the US state in two world wars invested its executive with dictatorial powers. These were used to direct the country’s economy, control the flow of information, crackdown on dissent, and herd potential fifth columnists into concentration camps. Even today, despite facing the comparatively minor threat of potential blowback from the political Islamic forces it has long supported to disrupt secular Arab nationalism [1], the United States, Britain, France, Canada and Australia have invested the political policing functions of their respective states with growing powers of surveillance and disruption.

Philosopher and historian Domenico Losurdo observes:

    In reality, although protected by the Atlantic and the Pacific, every time it has rightly or wrongly felt itself imperilled, the North American republic has proceeded to a more or less drastic reinforcement of executive power and to more or less heavy restrictions on freedom of association of expression. This applies to the years immediately following the French Revolution (when its devotees on American soil were hit by the Alien and Sedition Acts), to the Civil War, the First Word War, the Great Depression, the Second World War and the Cold War. Even in our day, the sequel of the attack of 11 September 2001 was the opening of a concentration camp at Guantanamo, where detainees have been imprisoned without trial, and without even being informed of a specific charge, regardless of age. However terrible, the threat of terrorism is minor compared with that of invasion and military occupation, not to mention nuclear destruction. [2]

The restrictive practices, or ‘totalitarianism’, of communist states are not inherent. They are, instead, defensive measures against external threat. Cuba and North Korea have been under a greater sustained threat of invasion and military occupation than any other country (and North Korea is additionally under the threat of nuclear destruction.) It is in these countries that the pressure for restrictive practices is most acutely felt. Nor are restrictions on civil and political liberties unique to communist states. They are also found in abundance in capitalist countries, as well.

To illustrate how the dogma in capitalist society conditions its mass media to portray communist countries as inherently restrictive, consider a recent Wall Street Journal article on the expansion of internet access in Cuba (“Cubans get a tantalizing taste of the internet,” August 19, 2015).

The article attributes the comparatively low level of internet use on the Caribbean island to a theorized desire of Cuban authorities to control the flow of information, rather than to a more likely explanation, namely Cuba’s low level of economic development. We would expect that more developed countries would have a higher level of internet use, and less developed countries a lower level. If the level of internet use in Cuba is on par with that of other countries at the same level of economic development, the country’s low level of internet use can be explained by economic development, not a desire to restrict access to the internet to control the flow of information.

The graph below uses World Bank data to show the relationship between internet use per 100 people and GDP per capita. If the Cuban government deliberately restricts internet use, we would expect Cuba to depart significantly to the right of the trend line. Instead, it falls close to it, meaning the level of internet use in Cuba is typical of countries at an equal level of economic development. We can dismiss, therefore, the view that the Caribbean island’s low level of internet use is due to the government deliberately restricting access to the Web. The Wall Street Journal’s explanation of the low level of internet use in Cuba is a political argument, intended to mislead and discredit, not illuminate.

Internet users per 100At 30 users per 100 people in 2014, internet use in Cuba was on par with that of Egypt (32) and El Salvador (30) and greater than in Guatemala (23), Honduras (19), India (18), Nicaragua (18) and Haiti (11) (World Bank). The average for Central America, a region on which the United States has lavished much attention to keep it free from communist ‘totalitarianism’, was 29, virtually equal to that of Cuba. If Cuba’s low level of internet use is indicative of Havana deliberately restricting access to the internet to control the flow of information, then the governments of Central America, along with Egypt and India, must also be ‘totalitarian.’

More fertile ground for identifying governments that impede the flow of information for political purposes can be found in the US orbit, among such trusted US (and capitalist) allies as South Korea, Turkey, Britain, Canada and the United States itself.

The South Korean police state vigorously effaces online content it doesn’t want South Koreans to see. When a computer user in South Korea clicks on an item on the North Korean Twitter account, a government warning against illegal content pops up. In 2011, South Korean authorities blocked over 53,000 internet posts for infractions which included having a kind word to say about North Korea. In the same year, the South Korean police state deleted over 67,000 Web posts that were deemed favorable to North Korea or which criticized the US or South Korean government. Over 14,000 posts were deleted in 2009. [3]

In Turkey, “thousands of Web sites are blocked by the state, mostly without any publicized reason.” [4]

In Britain, government officials have met with representatives of Twitter, Facebook and BlackBerry “to discuss voluntary ways to limit or restrict the use of social media to combat crime and periods of civil unrest.” Free-speech advocates liken these policies to those the British government “has criticized in totalitarian and one-party states.” [5]

The Canadian government recently passed legislation that would give its spy agency, CSIS, authority to disrupt “radical websites” and remove “terrorist propaganda” from the Internet—that is, restrict the flow of information on the Web. [6]

As for the United States, in 2009 “the U.S. Treasury Department ordered the closure of more than eighty websites related to Cuba that promoted trade and thus violated U.S. legislation on economic sanctions.” [7]

If the United States, South Korea, Turkey, Britain and Canada restrict the flow of information on the Internet for political reasons, how is it that Cuba is totalitarian, but these states are beacons of liberty?

Two further points.

First, the United States has waged a campaign of economic warfare against Cuba for over five decades. It’s impossible to say how large the Cuban economy would be today had it been allowed to develop unimpeded, but some estimates put the cost to Cuba of US economic aggression at $750 to $975 billion. [8] One analyst estimates that “Without the blockade, the Cuban standard of living today might well be equal to that of Western Europe.” [9] If so, internet use in Cuba would likely resemble European levels of 76 per 100 people, rather than today’s 30.

Second, the US propaganda system can’t mention internet access in Cuba without making reference to blogger Yoani Sanchez, whose online newspaper 14ymedio “is blocked in Cuba,” according to The Wall Street Journal. [10] There is a good reason for this. Sanchez’s web site appears to be a hostile project of the United States, a country in a virtual state of war with Cuba. Despite her status as a grassroots dissident, Sanchez’s web site is miraculously “available in no less than 18 languages….No other site in the world, including those of major international institutions such as the UN, World Bank, IMF, OECD, and the European Union, has as many language versions available. Not even the U.S. State Department web site or the CIA has such a variety.” [11]

Moreover,

    The site hosting the blog of Sanchez has a bandwidth 60 times higher than Cuba has for all its Internet users! Other questions inevitably arise about it: Who manages these pages in 18 languages? Who pays the administrators? How much? Who pays for the translators who work daily on Sanchez's site? How much? Furthermore, the management of a flow of more than 14 million visitors monthly is extremely expensive. Who pays for that? [12]

Jose Luis Martinez, a spokesman for the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, attributes the blocking of 14ymedio to the Cuban government’s desire “to have some type of control” and of being “a totalitarian regime trying to operate in the 21st century.” [13] US client state Egypt has locked up nearly 500 of Sanchez’s fellow political bloggers [14], while Washington’s strategic partner and major arms buyer Saudi Arabia has sentenced one blogger to 10 years in prison and 1,000 lashes for his dissident views [15], yet Havana, the ‘totalitarian regime’ that insists on ‘some type of control’, has spared Sanchez a similar fate. By Martinez’s reasoning, Egypt—which receives $1.3 billion annually in military aid from the United States, second only to Israel [16]—must be a totalitarian state on steroids. And yet it suffers none of the denigration Western news media heap on Cuba.

Losurdo observes that if Cuba’s measures for repressing some political dissent are totalitarianism, then West Germany, which did not shrink from repressing communists, and which, like Hitler, banned the Communist Party, would also have to be regarded as totalitarian. [17] The same could be said of South Korea, whose infamous National Security Law continues to be used to lock up leftists. The South Korea police state recently disbanded one left-wing party, stripping its legislators of their parliamentary seats, and jailing a handful of its members, including the lawmaker Lee Seok-ki. [18]

Decades of low-intensity warfare against Cuba carried out by the United States, including a blockade, unremitting military threat, sabotage, support for fifth columnists, and occasional terrorism, has created a de facto state of war. Nevertheless, Cuba has reacted to this situation with measures no more drastic than those implemented in the United States during two world wars, [19] and no more drastic than those once implemented in West Germany and currently practiced with vigor in South Korea.

It’s not ‘totalitarian’ Cuban government policy that has limited internet use in Cuba. Internet use in Cuba has been limited by the comparatively low level of development of the Cuban economy and the US economic aggression which has stifled it. What restrictions Cuba has implemented are warranted defensive measures against the predations of its hyper-aggressive neighbor to the north. This, however, would be news to those who follow the mass media in capitalist societies. The sole interest of these media when it comes to Cuba and North Korea is to discredit ideological competitors through the propagation of dogma which treats the warts of all societies as uniquely present in those of communism and absent in those of capitalism.



1. See Robert Dreyfus, Devil’s Game: How the United States Helped Unleash Fundamentalist Islam, Holt Paperbacks, 2005 and Mark Curtis, Secret Affairs: Britain’s Collusion with Radical Islam, Serpent’s Tail, 2010.

2. Domenico Losurdo. War and Revolution: Rethinking the 20th Century. Verso. 2015. p 58.

3. Stephen Gowans, “South Korea’s Police State Wages War on Proponents of Democracy,” what’s left, January 27, 2015.

4. Sebnem Arsu, “Internet filters set off protests around Turkey”, The New York Times, May 15, 2011.

5. Ravi Somaiya, “In Britain, a meeting on limiting social media”, The New York Times, August 25, 2011.

6. “Tell Parliament-defeat police state bill C-51!”, People’s Voice, February 5, 2015.

7. Salim Lamrani, “The Contradictions of Cuban Blogger Yoani Sanchez,” MRZine, December 11, 2009.

8. Aida Calviac Mora, “With Obama in the White House, the blockade hasn’t changed at all”, Granma International, September 16, 2010; Thomas Kenny, “Interview with Thomas Kenny co-author of Socialism of ‘Betrayed Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union, 1917-1991,” PoliticalEconomy.ie, March 16, 2015.

9. Kenny.

10. Ryan Dube, “Cubans get a tantalizing taste of the internet,” The Wall Street Journal, August 19, 2015.

11. Lamrani.

12. Lamrani.

13. Dube.

14. Jeffrey Fleishman, “In Egypt, a blogger tries to spread ‘culture of disobedience’ among youths,” The Los Angeles Times, April 29, 2009.

15. Jay Solomon and Felicia Schwartz, “U.S. rebukes Saudis for sentencing blogger to 1,000 lashes,” The Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2014.

16. Carol E. Lee and Gordon Lubold, “U.S. seeks to allay concerns of allies on Iran nuclear deal,” The Wall Street Journal, July 19, 2015.

17. Losurdo, p. 312.

18. Gowans.

19. Losurdo, p. 312.
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Agelbert NOTE: I wish to add one observation. It's not that the leadership of the US felt imperiled. The fact is the US was an expansionist power from the start. They covered up for that with "Enlightenment" rhetoric, but that was, and is, just a clever guise. And expansionist power needs to have a well oiled propaganda machine to convince the public to support wars in taxes and blood. Consequently, the creation of enemies is par for the propaganda course. The public had to be convinced they were "imperiled" in order to sucker said public into being fleeced six ways from Sunday. The NAZI propaganda modus operandi had long been used (and still is used) by the US propaganda machine to fund wars and mayhem.

Quote
Wartime propagandists universally seek to justify the use of military violence by portraying it as morally defensible and necessary. To do otherwise would jeopardize public morale and faith in the government and its armed forces.

Throughout the Second World War, Nazi propagandists disguised military aggression aimed at territorial conquest as righteous and necessary acts of self-defense. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)

They cast Germany as a victim or potential victim of foreign aggressors, as a peace-loving nation forced to take up arms to protect its populace or defend European civilization against Communism. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ftissue.gif&hash=f8d05db8e11569882e0effbdd719e2b2e95c6785)

The war aims professed at each stage of the hostilities almost always disguised actual Nazi intentions of territorial expansion and racial warfare.

This was propaganda of deception, designed to fool or misdirect the populations in Germany, German-occupied lands, and the neutral countries.

http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007822 (http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007822)

Does the above not sound nauseatingly familiar to Fox News and friends programming?
   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

The US tried to do to Cuba (from 1959 until the present) what France, England and the US did to Haiti from 1803 until the present. It did not work.

Now they are going to plan B which involves neoliberal happy talk and seductive attempts to increase mindless consumerism in Cuba. Cuba knows the score. The predatory capitalists had better bring a sandwich.  ;D

 
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on August 31, 2015, 10:25:14 pm
Quote
Until we dismantle the neoliberal order and recover the humanistic tradition that rejects the view that human beings and the Earth are commodities to exploit, our form of industrialized and economic barbarity will collide with the barbarity of those who oppose us.

The only choice offered by “bourgeois society,” as  Friedrich Engels knew, is “socialism (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ficare.gif&hash=7a81c13fb045a57fc456f34661fddcf04dbfe8b7) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fearthhug.gif&hash=3abcf70466f34337f2d702ebd9e02c650d5c4c20) or regression into barbarism.”  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil19.gif&hash=6eeb0dbc471743691793f5130640fdcbd1f77b5c)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2z6in9g.gif&hash=771b084a0f186d9cc14f31defd98a6c90b69b84f) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F3ztzsjm.gif&hash=8e015ba6a93bc1ec93ebde8fd6b2daa19e537306)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_6348.gif&hash=9504ceda802b0d93a18efc33727d5044073ea428)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil12.gif&hash=d1822754cefdd0f77369dacd157d00f5f8d3fff9)


It is time we make this choice.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

The Great Unraveling

Posted on Aug 30, 2015 By Chris Hedges
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_great_unraveling_20150830

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 27, 2015, 02:51:28 am
(https://scontent.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10482528_701841096575614_3344996800986230639_n.jpg?oh=526e64e10b72dbd63734ab4b3a74f176&oe=5695336F)

Part of that foreign policy that keeps us all living under Cheneylaw rather than Napoleonic.

ISIS only exists because Pres. Bush and his puppet master, Dick Cheney, invaded Iraq under false pretenses in order to enrich their military contractor buddies (Cheney's own Halliburton profited $39 billion).


Yep. There is a long tradition backing Cheney's MO (see 'Destructive Creations' peddled as 'Creative Destructions' (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4)).

We all know that everybody on Wall Street lies whenever necessary to make a lot of money. But since 2012 we know that at least one fourth of them tell the truth in surveys...

A Quarter Of Wall Street Executives Say You Have To Be Unethical To Succeed (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c)

Quote

Jul. 10, 2012, 5:12 PM
According to a report released today by Labaton Sucharow, a shocking 24 percent of financial executives from the US and UK believe that it is necessary "to engage in unethical or illegal conduct in order to be successful."

Perhaps more surprising, 26 percent of the 500 senior executives polled said they actually knew about immoral behavior going on in the work place.

http://www.businessinsider.com/a-quarter-of-wall-street-executives-think-unethical-activity-is-required-to-succeed-2012-7 (http://www.businessinsider.com/a-quarter-of-wall-street-executives-think-unethical-activity-is-required-to-succeed-2012-7)

Shocking? SURPRISING!!?

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270915024312.jpeg&hash=2fff72ff7159c0640c610b2bfac69df32a03f27e)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 01, 2015, 09:40:56 pm
World  |  Wed Sep 23, 2015 6:12am EDT
Related:  World 

Russia pledges counter measures if U.S. upgrades nuclear arms in Germany         (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300714025456.bmp&hash=f4e4a260bd60d3f34ca86fed93c47d5fb4117cfd)


MOSCOW

Russian President Vladimir Putin arrives to deliver his speech during an opening ceremony of the MAKS International Aviation and Space Salon in Zhukovsky, outside Moscow, Russia, August 25, 2015. REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov


Russia would be forced to take counter measures to restore the balance of power in Europe if media reports that the United States plans to upgrade its nuclear presence in Germany are true, President Vladimir Putin's spokesman said on Wednesday.

The spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, was commenting after Germany's ZDF TV Channel reported that the United States intended to place 20 B61-12 nuclear bombs at the Büchel Air Base later this year.
 
"This could alter the balance of power in Europe," Peskov told reporters. "And without doubt it would demand that Russia take necessary counter measures to restore the strategic balance and parity."
 
 
(Reporting by Masha Tsvetkova and Katya Golubkova; Editing by Andrew Osborn)

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/09/23/us-usa-nuclear-germany-russia-idUSKCN0RN0SX20150923

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F3.bp.blogspot.com%2F-8lLqXmO11e8%2FUr31Tt8n48I%2FAAAAAAAAZkc%2FFFlmfS0ikUQ%2Fs1600%2FThanksObama.jpg.jpg&hash=fa8705886a3cb55b4753a0d851559e96c31569d9)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 14, 2015, 05:27:17 pm
November 2015: Natural Analogy to Paris

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141115171942.jpeg&hash=30f9fdec89118b35ab7340600326a01c58a4ad22)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-150715183719.png&hash=7b222546f30a032efc31223d85eea0535ed42a49)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 14, 2015, 06:18:54 pm
Monsta said,
Quote
Let us assume the false flag theory is true and this event was planned what would be the objective of such an event? Would it be to convince the French public to be more supportive of aggressive military actions or to take a more hard line approach to immigration? I think if there is a motive it would more likely be the former as staging an event like this simply to reduce immigration is overkill.

I agree that the motive is not more war in the Middle East or the immigration thing.

So, WHAT IS THE MOTIVE?

Polluters Goebbels Style Conspiracy to Sabotage COP21


Let us connect the war profiteering dots, shall we? Some here will scoff and say I just discarded "more war" as a motive. Yes, I did that. But I DID NOT discard WAR SCARE propaganda.

WHAT, EXACTLY, is scheduled to happen next month in PARIS that threatens the bottom line of ALL the war profiteering ****s all over the planet?

COP21!

Can you think of a better way to DISTRACT the worldwide public from the climate change reforms that spell bankruptcy for the polluting "business models" that RELY on price shocks and wars to keep making billions of dollars in profits to buy or bop politicians with?

Can you think of a better way to frighten all the delegates from all over the world coming to Paris next month?

Can you think of a better way to keep the climate change issue OFF the front pages while the COP21 conference gets CASTRATED by the fossil fuel, mining, chemical, weapons manufacturing and pharmaceutical (etc.) industries?

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Femoticon-object-106.gif&hash=f996659d18df7f3b445e6135e884397ac91f25b1) THESE PEOPLE WILL DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING TO PRESERVE THEIR PROFITS!
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280914174538.jpeg&hash=bcf9cf2d12c22ea43304cdaf580bffa32387186d)
Polluters: Do not **** with our "business model" or our profits.  :evil4:

IF IT'S BLOOD ON THE STREETS THAT IS CALLED FOR, THEY WILL DO IT! THEY HAVE A TRACK RECORD FOR DOING IT!. FOLLOW THE GOD DAMNED MONEY! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Femoticons%2Ftuzki-bunnys%2Ftuzki-bunny-emoticon-028.gif&hash=24570cb7e8246617010ce900a07bc85117ff78ca) $$$,$$$,$$$,$$$ EVERY YEAR!!!

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fa.disquscdn.com%2Fuploads%2Fmediaembed%2Fimages%2F1379%2F5686%2Foriginal.jpg&hash=305df14d5ce887ff3443d083ce43526dbe54f93a)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 14, 2015, 08:13:31 pm

Jon Schwarz says The Devil’s Chessboard confirms that “your darkest suspicions about how the world operates are likely an underestimate.

Quote
JFK And The Secret Rockefeller Government - a double book review

Nov. 13, 2015 7:14 am  by Roger Casement 


This is a consideration/review by David Swanson of the both excellent "JFK And The Unspeakable - Why he died and why it matters", by James Douglass. And "The Devil's Chessboard", by David Talbot.


“JFK and the Unspeakable” and “The Deep State”: The Assassinations of John and Robert Kennedy, The Role of Allen DullesBy David SwansonGlobal Research, November 13, 2015David Swanson's Blog 13 November 2015Region: USATheme: Intelligence

By now there’s not nearly as much disagreement regarding what happened to John and Robert Kennedy as major communications corporations would have you believe. While every researcher and author highlights different details, there isn’t any serious disagreement among, say, Jim Douglass’ JFK and the Unspeakable, Howard Hunt’s deathbed confession, and David Talbot’s new The Devil’s Chessboard.

Jon Schwarz says The Devil’s Chessboard confirms that “your darkest suspicions about how the world operates are likely an underestimate. Yes, there is an amorphous group of unelected corporate lawyers, bankers, and intelligence and military officials who form an American ‘deep state,’ setting real limits on the rare politicians who ever try to get out of line.”

For those of us who were already convinced of that up to our eyeballs, Talbot’s book is still one of the best I’ve seen on the Dulles brothers and one of the best I’ve seen on the assassination of John F. Kennedy. Where it differs from Douglass’ book, I think, is not so much in the evidence it relates or the conclusions it draws, but in providing an additional motivation for the crime.

JFK and the Unspeakable
depicts Kennedy as getting in the way of the violence that Allen Dulles and gang wished to engage in abroad. He wouldn’t fight Cuba or the Soviet Union or Vietnam or East Germany or independence movements in Africa. He wanted disarmament and peace. He was talking cooperatively with Khrushchev, as Eisenhower had tried prior to the U2-shootdown sabotage. The CIA was overthrowing governments in Iran, Guatemala, the Congo, Vietnam, and around the world. Kennedy was getting in the way.

The Devil’s Chessboard depicts Kennedy, in addition, as himself being the sort of leader the CIA was in the habit of overthrowing in those foreign capitals. Kennedy had made enemies of bankers and industrialists. He was working to shrink oil profits by closing tax loopholes, including the “oil depletion allowance.” He was permitting the political left in Italy to participate in power, outraging the extreme right in Italy, the U.S., and the CIA. He aggressively went after steel corporations and prevented their price hikes. This was the sort of behavior that could get you overthrown if you lived in one of those countries with a U.S. embassy in it.

Yes, Kennedy wanted to eliminate or drastically weaken and rename the CIA. Yes he threw Dulles and some of his gang out the door. Yes he refused to launch World War III over Cuba or Berlin or anything else. Yes he had the generals and warmongers against him, but he also had Wall Street against him.

Of course “politicians who ever try to get out of line” are now, as then, but more effectively now, handled first by the media.
If the media can stop them or some other maneuver can stop them (character assassination, blackmail, distraction, removal from power) then violence isn’t required.

The fact that Kennedy resembled a coup target, not just a protector of other targets, would be bad news for someone like Senator Bernie Sanders if he ever got past the media, the “super delegates,” and the sell-out organizations to seriously threaten to take the White House. A candidate who accepts the war machine to a great extent and resembles Kennedy not at all on questions of peace, but who takes on Wall Street with the passion it deserves, could place himself as much in the cross-hairs of the deep state as a Jeremy Corbyn who takes on both capital and killing.

Accounts of the escapades of Allen Dulles, and the dozen or more partners in crime whose names crop up beside his decade after decade, illustrate the power of a permanent plutocracy, but also the power of particular individuals to shape it. What if Allen Dulles and Winston Churchill and others like them hadn’t worked to start the Cold War even before World War II was over? What if Dulles hadn’t collaborated with Nazis and the U.S. military hadn’t recruited and imported so many of them into its ranks? What if Dulles hadn’t worked to hide information about the holocaust while it was underway? What if Dulles hadn’t betrayed Roosevelt and Russia to make a separate U.S. peace with Germany in Italy? What if Dulles hadn’t begun sabotaging democracy in Europe immediately and empowering former Nazis in Germany? What if Dulles hadn’t turned the CIA into a secret lawless army and death squad? What if Dulles hadn’t worked to end Iran’s democracy, or Guatemala’s? What if Dulles’ CIA hadn’t developed torture, rendition, human experimentation, and murder as routine policies? What if Eisenhower had been permitted to talk with Khrushchev? What if Dulles hadn’t tried to overthrow the President of France? What if Dulles had been “checked” or “balanced” ever so slightly by the media or Congress or the courts along the way?

These are tougher questions than “What if there had been no Lee Harvey Oswald?” The answer to that is, “There would have been another guy very similar to serve the same purpose, just as there had been in the earlier attempt on JFK in Chicago. But “What if there had been no Allen Dulles?” looms large enough to suggest the possible answer that we would all be better off, less militarized, less secretive, less xenophobic. And that suggests that the deep state is not uniform and not unstoppable. Talbot’s powerful history is a contribution to the effort to stop it.

I hope Talbot speaks about his book in Virginia, after which he might stop saying that Williamsburg and the CIA’s “farm” are in “Northern Virginia.” Hasn’t Northern Virginia got enough to be ashamed of without that?

The original source of this article is David Swanson's Blog
.- See more at: http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2015/11/jfk-and-secret-rockefeller-government-double-book-review#sthash.nhWXQqMi.dpuf (http://www.thomhartmann.com/forum/2015/11/jfk-and-secret-rockefeller-government-double-book-review#sthash.nhWXQqMi.dpuf)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 26, 2015, 08:58:08 pm
VIDEO: Chris Hedges on the Militarization of Higher Education

Posted on Nov 25, 2015

In this episode of his new teleSUR show, “Days of Revolt,” Chris Hedges discusses the militarization of higher education institutions with journalist Alexa O’Brien. Uncovering the trail of money and influence from the national security state to college programs, Hedges and O’Brien identify the ways in which this apparatus has long ­been in effect, and what it could mean for the future.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ntMdeB98lZ0

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/video_chris_hedges_on_the_militarization_of_higher_education_20151125
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 27, 2015, 03:34:04 am
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ND9N33kEnUg

Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov Eyes Measures to Close Turkish-Syrian Border; Says Closure Will Curb Terrorists in Syria; Notes Hollande Told Obama Border Question Is Key to Stopping Flow of Militants and Jihadi Financing; Jarablus Corridor Now at Center of World Attention; This Issue Will Top Putin-Hollande Agenda in Moscow Thursday
http://tarpley.net/russian-foreign-minister-lavrov-eyes-measures-to-close-turkish-syrian-border/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 27, 2015, 07:09:10 pm
https://youtu.be/Byxh7TC8pMs
Quote

Published on Nov 27, 2015

Footage released on Thursday shows police in the northern Italian city of Trieste seizing a shipment of nearly 800 shotguns en route from Turkey to Belgium.

Agelbert NOTE: If you think that the MONEY made by ISIS in Syria (fully IGNORED for over 15 months by the US "bombing effort" until the Russians, on behest of the Syrian government, started to put the kibosh on that operation with effective bombing) from illegally selling OIL to Turkey to finance terrorism in the Middle East (AND recently in FRANCE so the COP21 efforts to make countries transition to a renewable energy world are thwarted) PAID for these WINCHESTER shotguns, then you are thinking logically.

The fossil fuel government IN the USA that CREATED (see General Petraeus and Betrayus NEOCON friends) and FULLY BACKS ISIS, regardless of what they claim in public, will do ANYTHING to keep their profit over planet gravy train going.   >:(

  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-031014141830.png&hash=5319d4dcf7ff24e048aa47d746f07b83bedcc1c0)

When the COP21 conference is over in Paris, for some "strange" reason, the "ISIS terrorist threat" there will "miraculously" disappear. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil12.gif&hash=d1822754cefdd0f77369dacd157d00f5f8d3fff9)



Polluters Goebbels Style Conspiracy to Sabotage COP21

Let us connect the war profiteering dots, shall we?  This is not about fomenting a war or a price shock as is the usual criminal practice of the fossil fuel industry skullduggy activities for the last half century or so. This is about another bit of skullduggery in their bag of ethics free tricks: WAR SCARE propaganda.

WHAT, EXACTLY, is scheduled to happen next month in PARIS that threatens the bottom line of ALL the war profiteering bastards all over the planet?

COP21!

Can you think of a better way to DISTRACT the worldwide public from the climate change reforms that spell bankruptcy for the polluting "business models" that RELY on price shocks and wars to keep making billions of dollars in profits to buy or bop politicians with?

Can you think of a better way to frighten all the delegates from all over the world coming to Paris next month?

Can you think of a better way to keep the climate change issue OFF the front pages while the COP21 conference gets CASTRATED by the fossil fuel, mining, chemical, weapons manufacturing and pharmaceutical (etc.) industries?

THESE PEOPLE WILL DO ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING TO PRESERVE THEIR PROFITS!
IF IT'S BLOOD ON THE STREETS THAT IS CALLED FOR, THEY WILL DO IT! THEY HAVE A TRACK RECORD FOR DOING IT!. FOLLOW THE GOD DAMNED MONEY! $$$,$$$,$$$,$$$ EVERY YEAR!!!
THIS IS ANOTHER CRIME BY THE POLLUTERS DOOMING FUTURE GENERATIONS!

The Fossil Fuelers   DID THE Climate Trashing, human health depleteing CRIME,  but since they have ALWAYS BEEN liars and conscience free crooks, they are trying to AVOID DOING THE TIME or PAYING THE FINE!   Don't let them get away with it! Pass it on!
Let us assume the false flag theory is true and this event was planned what would be the objective of such an event? (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/climate-change/global-warming-is-with-us/msg4106/#msg4106)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 02, 2015, 03:23:07 pm
Turkey Stages Coup Against Its Own Press and Generals in Bid to Arm Syrian Militants   >:( (Video)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=nNxJyYCQu2Q

Posted on Dec 1, 2015

By Juan Cole
 
This post originally ran on Truthdig contributor Juan Cole’s website.


Turkey has  jailed two very prominent journalists for publishing video last May of a January, 2014, Turkish intelligence convoy of weapons to Syrian militants.  When I say prominent, I mean prominent.  They are Can Dundar, editor-in-chief of the Cumhuriyet newspaper, and Ankara bureau chief Erdem Gul.   Cumhuriyet (“Republic”) was founded in 1924 and is center-left in its orientation.  So this would be like the FBI carting off Dean Baquet of the New York Times for reporting on CIA shipments of T.O.W. missiles to Salafi rebels in Syria.  The journalists are charged with espionage and belonging (!) to a terrorist organization– charges fantastic on the face of it. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)


Meanwhile, the Syrian army is  charging that Turkey has vastly increased arms shipments to rebels in Syria since last week’s shootdown of a Russian fighter jet, and is receiving smuggled gasoline and antiquities in payment.

The Turkish government  has now also arrested several senior generals who, acting on a tip, were the ones who in January 2014 ordered the search of trucks allegedly carrying arms to rebels in Syria– on which Cumhuriyet reported.  Huriryet writes: “Istanbul Deputy Chief Prosecutor ?rfan Fidan interrogated Ankara Gendarmerie Regional Commander Maj. Gen. ?brahim Ayd?n, Brig. Gen. Hamza Celepo?lu and Ret. Col. Burhanettin Cihangiro?lu on Nov. 28 and sent them to court appealing for their arrest on Nov. 29.”

Hurriyet  explains:
 
Quote
“On Jan. 19, 2014, a convoy of trucks on their way to cross into Syira was stopped by gendarmerie forces upon suspicion that they were carrying military material to rebel groups fighting against the Bashar al-Assad regime. The incident turned into a big news story when the gendarmerie forces detained the intelligence officers and confiscated the trucks.

President Erdogan, who was prime minister at the time, reacted harshly over the case, accusing sympathizers of US-based Islamic scholar Fethullah Gulen in the judiciary and the security forces of undermining the government. He said the Gulen movement was responsible for the halting of the trucks, as well as the Dec. 17-25, 2013 corruption cases that he claimed had tried to bring down the government . . .  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffc06.deviantart.net%2Ffs71%2Ff%2F2009%2F347%2F2%2F6%2FWTF_Smiley_face_by_IveWasHere.jpg&hash=8ca673f8cf785d9dac626f9fd91e37a1a318c7ac)


The government says the case of the halted trucks is evidence of the Gulenists’ “anti-national” behaviour, as it claims that the trucks were carrying assistance to Turkmens fighting in Syria against both al-Assad and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). When Dundar and Erdem published their story as fresh evidence in the case, despite courts ruling to restrict media coverage of the incident upon the government’s request, they made President Erdogan furious. Prosecutors soon opened cases against them.”

So this case has to do with the 2013-2014 campaign of the secretive religious-Right Gulen faction within the Turkish government to bring then-PM Tayyip Erdogan (now president) into disrepute.  Gulenists had made damning recordings and collected documents when they were still partners with Erdogan and a constituent group inside the Justice and Development Party (AKP).  Erdogan weathered the charges against him in the eyes of the public, and his party just won enough seats to rule without seeking a coalition with any other party.

That Turkey and the Gulf oil states have been supporting hard line fundamentalist Salafi groups in Syria such as the Army of Conquest (an al-Qaeda-led coalition) is an open secret.  That Daesh (ISIL, ISIS) has been smuggling gasoline and kerosene from the refineries it captured, in part to Turkey, is another open secret.

So why is the AKP government waging a war on the press and its own generals to cover up this activity? 

My guess is that Erdogan is having prosecutors send a signal to journalists and military men that acting on or revealing further Gulenist leaks will not be permitted.  Perhaps he fears that the Gulen movement has more dirt on him than it has already brought out and just wants to forestall its becoming public.  He may also be attempting to put all activities of the MiT (the Turkish CIA) out of bounds for the press and the Turkish military.

But the focus on that January, 2014, military shipment is also suspicious.  Erdogan claimed that it was humanitarian aid going to the Syrian Turkmen in the north of Syria.  But the inspection of the gendarmerie and the video released by Cumhuriyet demonstrate that the trucks were carrying weaponry.  Cumhuriyet reported that the cargo comprised a thousand mortar shells, 50,000 bullets for machine guns and 30,000 heavy artillery shells. —  Is the problem that it wasn’t going to Turkmen at all but to some group so radical that Erdogan would be embarrassed if it were known he was supplying it?

While Turkey is roiled by a war on journalists (the editor-in-chief of the conservative Muslim newspaper Zaman, which allegedly has ties to the Gulen movement, has just also been arrested, for insulting Erdogan), the arms flowing through the country are allowing the Salafi fighters to withstand the Russia air campaign south and east of Aleppo.

In a headache for President Obama, his Syrian Democratic Forces (a coalition of Kurdish, Sunni Arab and Christian militias)  have been kicked out of some villages south of Aleppo by another set of American clients, the Falcons of the Mountain (Suqur al-Jabal), who are hard line religionists and hate the Kurds as secular leftists allied with christians.  Al-Qaeda in Syria is also taking territory in the Aleppo area, opportunistically benefiting from Russian and regime attacks on Daesh there.

Turkey supports the Turkmen and the Army of Conquest despite the membership of al-Qaeda in the latter, against the Kurdish YPG. Russia is said to be helping the Kurds.

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/turkeys_coup_against_the_press_its_own_generals_over_arms_syria_20151201
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 07, 2016, 08:33:09 pm
Just what we need (NOT!), a new billion dollar Destroyer... :P

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KAWbwttAoI&feature=player_embedded
Quote


Video from Maine Imaging Photography showing the U.S. Navy’s Zumwalt (DDG-1000) entering Portland Harbor following sea trials in December. The Zumwalt is the first of three planned Zumwalt-class stealth destroyers being built for the Navy by General Dynamics Bath Iron Works in Maine.

Maine Imaging notes that it obtained permission to fly in such close proximity to the ship, which “was an honor”.  ::)

https://gcaptain.com/2016/01/06/watch-u-s-navys-new-zumwalt-destroyer-entering-portland-harbor/

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F49.media.tumblr.com%2F437a42c917e1d5e7f858358f456be2c0%2Ftumblr_n6edsvWOu21r55d2io1_500.gif&hash=46ffdd444138c510f07f447c5033d9dba04c6f36)



Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 11, 2016, 11:21:25 pm
M.I.C./Wall Street "LOGIC": The economy is in the tank and the people want a populist president!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared002.gif&hash=764898cfbf07ef2c41ffddc5e93fa0e1bed41bae) The Russians are wining in Syria.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared004.gif&hash=81319f862779b695ce4e05c68123a65cb30f7241) The Iranians gave their nuke stuff to the Russians so we can't scare loyal patriotic Americans into forcing us  ;D to bomb them by branding Iranians as Terrorist Atomic Ayatollas. Argh! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fwww_MyEmoticons_com__smokelots.gif&hash=094f88de6782c1cd03ed5321b387792046eb3cdd)  And those sneaky Iranians are starting to get visited by container ships! This is a catastrophe! Our military budget and our Wall Street Fascist Friends are BOTH in BIG trouble! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared005.gif&hash=2de3525707995f1cf9333ecfafd947caca42e8eb) .....
I guess it's time for the old "Remember the Maine/Gulf of Tonkin" Trick. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)  ;)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil12.gif&hash=d1822754cefdd0f77369dacd157d00f5f8d3fff9)


U.S. Navy (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) Says Video Shows Iranian Navy Firing Rockets Near Warships in Strait of Hormuz
SNIPPET:

Quote
January 10, 2016 by Reuters

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON, Jan 9 (Reuters) – The U.S. Navy released black-and-white video on Saturday it said was taken by an American helicopter showing an Iranian Revolutionary Guards vessel firing unguided rockets on Dec. 26 near warships including the aircraft carrier USS Harry S Truman in the Strait of Hormuz.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpm1.narvii.com%2F5869%2F6a64193d6770c3afd17406c78686c0eda32ded1c_hq.jpg&hash=fedf26e48d67cdd1e932380c7336ac18486d3fee)

Iran on Dec. 31 denied that its Revolutionary Guards vessels had launched the rockets as the United States claimed, with a Revolutionary Guards spokesman saying the “false” accusation was “akin to psychological warfare.” (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

https://gcaptain.com/2016/01/10/u-s-navy-video-shows-iran-navy-fire-rockets-near-warships-in-strait-of-hormuz/

Agelbert  Note;
Don't you just love how quotation marks are so cleverly used? Those propagandists know their properganda!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) Just take the first paragraph and add a few quotation marks in places like, uh, e.g. --- "near" warship"s" "in the Strait of Hormuz", etc.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)

Works every time! SUCKERS!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fmocantina.gif&hash=d013c741bcf9a78776eec19c2c3aac449c35d75c)
 
(https://desultoryheroics.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/6a01053596fb28970c01348365f7e1970c-450wi.jpg)



Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 12, 2016, 02:08:36 pm
M.I.C./Wall Street "LOGIC": The economy is in the tank and the people want a populist president!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared002.gif&hash=764898cfbf07ef2c41ffddc5e93fa0e1bed41bae) The Russians are wining in Syria.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared004.gif&hash=81319f862779b695ce4e05c68123a65cb30f7241) The Iranians gave their nuke stuff to the Russians so we can't scare loyal patriotic Americans into forcing us  ;D to bomb them by branding Iranians as Terrorist Atomic Ayatollas. Argh! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fwww_MyEmoticons_com__smokelots.gif&hash=094f88de6782c1cd03ed5321b387792046eb3cdd)  And those sneaky Iranians are starting to get visited by container ships! This is a catastrophe! Our military budget and our Wall Street Fascist Friends are BOTH in BIG trouble! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-scared005.gif&hash=2de3525707995f1cf9333ecfafd947caca42e8eb) .....
I guess it's time for the old "Remember the Maine/Gulf of Tonkin" Trick. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)  ;)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.freesmileys.org%2Fsmileys%2Fsmiley-devil12.gif&hash=d1822754cefdd0f77369dacd157d00f5f8d3fff9)


U.S. Navy (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) Says Video Shows Iranian Navy Firing Rockets Near Warships in Strait of Hormuz
SNIPPET:

https://gcaptain.com/2016/01/10/u-s-navy-video-shows-iran-navy-fire-rockets-near-warships-in-strait-of-hormuz/

Agelbert  Note;
Don't you just love how quotation marks are so cleverly used? Those propagandists know their properganda!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) Just take the first paragraph and add a few quotation marks in places like, uh, e.g. --- "near" warship"s" "in the Strait of Hormuz", etc.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)

Works every time! SUCKERS!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fmocantina.gif&hash=d013c741bcf9a78776eec19c2c3aac449c35d75c)
 
(https://desultoryheroics.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/6a01053596fb28970c01348365f7e1970c-450wi.jpg)





The video never shows the aircraft carrier, and it cannot get the frigate and the tanker and the Iranian vessels in the same frame, even when at 11,000 yards range.  The rockets are clearly not being fired AT the tanker or anything else.  At worst they are fired parallel to the tanker's track and in the opposite direction, if anything, away from the tanker.  "only 23 minutes of advance notification of its intention to fire rockets" means they WERE given notice, and could have been at least 7 nautical miles further away, if they were the least bit worried.

The aircraft carrier and the frigate were gate-crashing the Iranians' test, to get a better look, and to complain about it afterwards.

All shipping in the shipping lanes have to pass through Iranian territorial waters, and have to ask permission to do so. 
US @ 0600: Iranian Shipping Transit Authority, this is USS Truman and party requesting permission to transit." 
ISTA @ 0600: There will be a sea-to-sea missile firing test from 0620 to 0630 at 26.355°N 54.991°W into the NE quadrant.  Please proceed with caution." 
US: "Thank you, understood. Out."

Hardly news, is it? - not compared to the world-shatteringly tragic news of the death of David Bowie, pop and fashion icon of the 20th century anyway.  Not to mention flying a "nuclear-capable" B-52 over South Korea 4 days after the nuclear test, just to show the North Koreans "We mean business."


Of course it is cheap propaganda. But most Americans will swallow it if repeated enough. Don't you remember the Bin Laden videos (that turned out to be fake)? They got over a trillion dollars of war profiteering out of THAT!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.smilies.4-user.de%2Finclude%2FSpiele%2Fsmilie_game_017.gif&hash=e8548890f80af23241a1d43a1ab1ca8031301f20) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2z6in9g.gif&hash=771b084a0f186d9cc14f31defd98a6c90b69b84f)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fliberalslikechrist.org%2F%2BArtwork%2FMilitary_liberalism%2Fgoering-quote.jpg&hash=399f9d14b4e2b792341479450ba1f159cc9e7d4d)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpm1.narvii.com%2F5869%2F6a64193d6770c3afd17406c78686c0eda32ded1c_hq.jpg&hash=fedf26e48d67cdd1e932380c7336ac18486d3fee)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 16, 2016, 12:01:44 am
Quote
Can it finally be said that George W. Bush didn't lie about WMD's in Iraq?

Mike Bowerbank


Ross Cohen, B.A. in History & Political Science


There was a joke going around during the WMD debate that went something like this:
"How do the Americans know Saddam has chemical weapons?"
"They still have the sales receipts."
 
I hear apologists on the right say things like "Saddam was known to have chemical weapons, and chemical weapons are WMD, so Bush didn't lie" and it's a terrible, terrible distortion of the truth.
 
First of all, chemical weapons were not the WMD that were being discussed. We were told that Saddam was developing NUCLEAR weapons specifically. There was even that bogus "intelligence" that showed Saddam was acquiring yellow cake uranium from Niger. There is no real use for yellow cake except for nuclear weapons, so this was pretty damning stuff... except that it wasn't true.
 
Joe Wilson called BS on the yellow cake story, and the Bush White House sought revenge. Scooter Libby (widely believed upon the direct order of Dick Cheney) outed Wilson's wife, Valerie Plame, as a CIA spy. (To this day I don't understand how that is not treason.) Cheney said Plame was "fair game".
 
So the whole "Saddam had chemical weapons, so the WMD wasn't a lie" is an unintelligent, disingenuous, and downright insulting attempt to justify the war that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths, trillions  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978) in wasted money, and the current fustercluck we see in Iraq and Syria today.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2z6in9g.gif&hash=771b084a0f186d9cc14f31defd98a6c90b69b84f)
https://www.quora.com/Can-it-finally-be-said-that-George-W-Bush-didnt-lie-about-WMDs-in-Iraq

Agelbert NOTE: Yep. But it was also an excellent example of how Game Theory is employed by the IRRESPONSIBLE, LAZY, WELFARE QUEEN M.I.C. in the USA to make money off of we-the-people...

The problem with that method of "making money" is that you eventually run out of OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn02.yarn.com%2Fresources%2FYarn%2Fimages%2Fproducts%2Fprocessed%2FDEFARGEKNIT.zoom.1.jpg&hash=51dcab5a98a5d35a7a3f8fe59ecdef0a088d0e48)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 15, 2016, 04:12:36 pm
Week Eighteen of the Russian Intervention in Syria: A Dramatic Escalation Appears Imminent (http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-eighteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-a-dramatic-escalation-appears-imminent/)

   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) Excellent article. The Saker knows his stuff.

My only observation is that Russia is in a better position than the "coalition" to maintain air superiority. Unless somebody in the US oligarchy wants a shooting war with Russia based on lots of dead coalition troops, they will muzzle Turkey. Erdogan is in a precarious position in his country and he knows it. Sure, it would be just like him to try to invade in order to prevent his ouster due to the continued exposure of his massive corruption. But if that is green lighted by our knuckle draggers in the MIC, Erdogan is the designated fall guy because his troops will have their asses handed to them. I'm sure he has a few generals under him that may decide discretion is the better part of valor and act to depose Erdogan on some exposed corruption. Erdogan has so many skeletons in his closet that he could corner the calcium market in turkey!

Here's what Saker is missing. The MAIN reason all this S H I T goes on down there is because of a resource of polluting energy called oil. Russia has lots of oil and gas and Saker sees them the way the Russian government sees them (allegedly valuable energy sources).

Saker, therefore, does NOT see the connection between cratering fossil fuel prices worldwide and the coming peace in that region. I do.

It ain't about religion, no matter what we have been told. It never was. It's about "national interests".  "National interests" in the coalition are ALL ABOUT VALUABLE energy or mineral sources, PERIOD.

When something (that the MIC has been coveting and fighting over since Standard Oil took over most of this country's foreign policy predatory piggery) is no longer very valuable, the wind goes out of the sails of the Wall Street Greed MACHINE behind EVERY military action since WWII. Yes the doffense contractors will lose some money, but they were never in the driver's seat of our foreign policy, despite their war profiteering MO in every war this country has been involved with. The fossil fuel industry has DOMINATED US foreign policy for well over a century. And the fossil fuel industry is STRONG in Russia. So, they are as much stuck in their "real world" as the coalition is.

The bottom line is that people fight over valuable stuff. There is no money in fighting over oil producing regions anymore. This is BASIC game theory. Our MIC bases ALL its plans and actions on game theory, unlike Russia. The MONEY is now, because of the high tech snooping of everybody and his mother now available, in nickel and diming we-the-sheeple 24/7. It's mostly invisible and it keeps the oligarchs in place. The MIC is happy as long s they can "justify" the giant logistics swag they now enjoy required to operate all their bases. The MIC will, of course, continue to occasionally terrorize and butcher a few humans here and there to make sure congress doesn't forget the, uh, "national security" justification for the humongous budget we-the-suckers must provide for these Welfare Queens with very big teeth. The MIC is just as happy not having to lose any people in wars if the swag keeps coming in. And the weapons makers too because the military practices a LOT blowing stuff up and shooting bullets. Their Wall Street backed "business model" works great as long as we-the=suckers in the USA swallow their "national security" propaganda. I'm sure Lockheed Martin is grateful to all of us for helping fund their solar panel infrastructure improvements that will provide Renewable energy based electrical power for their weapons making factories.  ::)

I predict peace in Syria punctuated by occasional incursions from Israeli jets to keep the money flowing from our gooberment to our pet "democracy" (Israeli Oligarchy). Our favorite mediaeval Sheikdom of butchers and perverts (the Saudis) will join in on the fun with token incursions to keep our money flowing to them too. After all, they have been loyal servants of Big Oil for many years. We must do all we can to bolster their efforts to pump oil out of the ground with solar panel generated electricity. We wouldn't want them to lose money, now would we?  ;)      (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 15, 2016, 06:39:53 pm
This is what I think about all the alleged "complexities" in human politics and ISMs of all stripes:

Aggressive, dominating humans are either greedy bastards or they are intelligent and far seeing enough to be socially responsible. All the political labels and nuances are either cheap rationalizations for tyranny or a pretense of the obvious required egalitarian harmony among all members of a species (AND the surrounding biosphere) necessary for the perpetuation of a species.

The rest is B U L L S H I T.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 14, 2016, 05:13:44 pm
In yet another surprise move, Putin announces the withdrawal of Russian forces from Syria.  The straightforward interpretation of this decision is, as he says, that the ceasefire is holding well enough for the political peace process to begin.  But Putin is anything but straightforward, and the ceasefire is shaky at best, and the peace conference is far from likely to achieve any outcome.

It puts pressure on Assad and the "moderate rebels" to be more accommodating at the talks, otherwise fighting is sure to resume.  Indirectly it puts pressure on the US too, but their influence over the moderate rebels is not as strong as they would like to make out.  And it does seem to take pressure off the US-supported "non-moderate rebels" or ISIS and Al Nusra and their backers, Turkey and Saudi Arabia.

Perhaps this is about dumping the whole mess back in Obama's lap, as any fighting now is going to be all down to the US and its "allies", who are in total disagreement over what to do next.

https://www.rt.com/news/335554-putin-orders-syria-withdrawal/ (https://www.rt.com/news/335554-putin-orders-syria-withdrawal/)
Putin orders start of Russian military withdrawal from Syria, says ‘objectives achieved’
14 Mar, 2016

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu to start the withdrawal of forces from Syria starting Tuesday. Russia will however keep a military presence at the port of Tartus and at the Khmeimim airbase to observe ceasefire agreements.

“I consider the objectives that have been set for the Defense Ministry to be generally accomplished. That is why I order to start withdrawal of the main part of our military group from the territory of the Syrian Arab Republic starting from tomorrow,” Putin said on Monday during a meeting with Shoigu and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.

"In a short period of time Russia has created a small but very effective military group [in Syria]... the effective work of our military allowed the peace process to begin," Putin said, adding that with the assistance of the Russian Air Force "Syrian government troops and patriotic forces have changed the situation in the fight with international terrorism and have ceased the initiative."

To control the observation of ceasefire agreements in the region, Moscow will keep its Khmeimim airbase in Latakia province and a base at the port of Tartus, Putin said.

At Moscow's initiative, a phone conversation between Vladimir Putin and Syria's President Bashar Assad was held on Monday evening, the Kremlin reported.

The two leaders agreed that the actions of Russia's Air Force in Syria have allowed them to "profoundly reverse the situation" in connection to fighting terrorists in the region, having "disorganized militants' infrastructure and inflicted fundamental damage upon them."

Bashar Assad has recognized the “professionalism, courage and heroism” of Russian Army soldiers and officers, who have taken part in the military action, thanking Russia not only for extensive help in the fight against terrorism, but also for providing humanitarian aid and assistance to the Syrian civilian population.

The Syrian leader also stressed its readiness to engage in the political process in Syria as soon as possible, the Kremlin said.

Russia's president also addressed his foreign minister. He had tasked Lavrov with intensifying Russia's participation in the peace process to solve the Syrian crisis, the Kremlin reported.

Moscow launched its anti-terror campaign in Syria on September 30 last year. Russia’s participation in the operation, according to a previous statement by Putin, has its basis in international law and has been conducted “in accordance with an official request from the president of the Syrian Arab Republic [Bashar Assad].”

The Russian Air Force has been carrying out airstrikes against Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) and other terrorist targets in the region, eliminating military equipment, communication centers, vehicles, arms and fuel depots.


It's not a surprise to me. It's also not a surprise to me that Erdogan just had the war come home to Turkey. http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/ankara-bombing-one/2600226.html?cx_tag=trendingworld&cid=tg:recos:trendingworld:standard#cxrecs_s (http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/world/ankara-bombing-one/2600226.html?cx_tag=trendingworld&cid=tg:recos:trendingworld:standard#cxrecs_s)

Russia might or might not be behind this terrorist attack. I tend to think, like I told Surly a while ago when you and other people wrongly thought that WWIII was going to be triggered in Syria, that the generals in Turkey have simply sent the message to their jackals that it is time to "undermine" the confidence in Erdogan, for Turkey's own good and to return the country to sanity. Please note the date on the following post. I anticipated correctly what has transpired, whether you want to accept that, or not.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F290.gif&hash=38949e35cf58eaa4218b5a8176767c806d2f8537)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F245.gif&hash=67462ab647fbd65cb336e77c93c2601e477da0a9)


Week Eighteen of the Russian Intervention in Syria: A Dramatic Escalation Appears Imminent (http://www.unz.com/tsaker/week-eighteen-of-the-russian-intervention-in-syria-a-dramatic-escalation-appears-imminent/)

   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) Excellent article. The Saker knows his stuff.

My only observation is that Russia is in a better position than the "coalition" to maintain air superiority. Unless somebody in the US oligarchy wants a shooting war with Russia based on lots of dead coalition troops, they will muzzle Turkey. Erdogan is in a precarious position in his country and he knows it. Sure, it would be just like him to try to invade in order to prevent his ouster due to the continued exposure of his massive corruption. But if that is green lighted by our knuckle draggers in the MIC, Erdogan is the designated fall guy because his troops will have their asses handed to them. I'm sure he has a few generals under him that may decide discretion is the better part of valor and act to depose Erdogan on some exposed corruption. Erdogan has so many skeletons in his closet that he could corner the calcium market in turkey!

Here's what Saker is missing. The MAIN reason all this S H I T goes on down there is because of a resource of polluting energy called oil. Russia has lots of oil and gas and Saker sees them the way the Russian government sees them (allegedly valuable energy sources).

Saker, therefore, does NOT see the connection between cratering fossil fuel prices worldwide and the coming peace in that region. I do.

It ain't about religion, no matter what we have been told. It never was. It's about "national interests".  "National interests" in the coalition are ALL ABOUT VALUABLE energy or mineral sources, PERIOD.

When something (that the MIC has been coveting and fighting over since Standard Oil took over most of this country's foreign policy predatory piggery) is no longer very valuable, the wind goes out of the sails of the Wall Street Greed MACHINE behind EVERY military action since WWII. Yes the doffense contractors will lose some money, but they were never in the driver's seat of our foreign policy, despite their war profiteering MO in every war this country has been involved with. The fossil fuel industry has DOMINATED US foreign policy for well over a century. And the fossil fuel industry is STRONG in Russia. So, they are as much stuck in their "real world" as the coalition is.

The bottom line is that people fight over valuable stuff. There is no money in fighting over oil producing regions anymore. This is BASIC game theory. Our MIC bases ALL its plans and actions on game theory, unlike Russia. The MONEY is now, because of the high tech snooping of everybody and his mother now available, in nickel and diming we-the-sheeple 24/7. It's mostly invisible and it keeps the oligarchs in place. The MIC is happy as long s they can "justify" the giant logistics swag they now enjoy required to operate all their bases. The MIC will, of course, continue to occasionally terrorize and butcher a few humans here and there to make sure congress doesn't forget the, uh, "national security" justification for the humongous budget we-the-suckers must provide for these Welfare Queens with very big teeth. The MIC is just as happy not having to lose any people in wars if the swag keeps coming in. And the weapons makers too because the military practices a LOT blowing stuff up and shooting bullets. Their Wall Street backed "business model" works great as long as we-the=suckers in the USA swallow their "national security" propaganda. I'm sure Lockheed Martin is grateful to all of us for helping fund their solar panel infrastructure improvements that will provide Renewable energy based electrical power for their weapons making factories.  ::)

I predict peace in Syria punctuated by occasional incursions from Israeli jets to keep the money flowing from our gooberment to our pet "democracy" (Israeli Oligarchy). Our favorite mediaeval Sheikdom of butchers and perverts (the Saudis) will join in on the fun with token incursions to keep our money flowing to them too. After all, they have been loyal servants of Big Oil for many years. We must do all we can to bolster their efforts to pump oil out of the ground with solar panel generated electricity. We wouldn't want them to lose money, now would we?  ;)      (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)


As they used to say in my Russian Language classes at West Point, Klass Konchen (класс распущен).
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 18, 2016, 09:55:04 pm
Hope Returns (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl9.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F1529%2F1529939gg8yeanop9.gif&hash=b98dea76243e5c9b95baaad8efdc46a8a8700271)

March 17, 2016
© UNHCR/A. McConnell

SNIPPET:


Scattered debris and concrete bones of buildings blanket the neighborhood of Baba Amr in Homs, Syria. These are cruel reminders of the conflict that drove some 80,000 Syrians from their homes over five years ago.  :(

Now that calm has settled in again, Syrians like Sabah are the first to return home to repair their roots and dust off the town they left behind to the fate of war.

Sabah remembers vividly the day her home was struck. “When the house was shelled, we felt a huge explosion. We ran out of the house. We looked up and saw that a floor had collapsed.”

It takes years to build a home, but only seconds to destroy it. Rebuilding will be difficult and costly, but Sabah is determined to restore what was lost.

Her home in Baba Amr was more than a place to live, it was a sanctuary of good memories before war and violence became part of her everyday life. “I didn’t want to leave it and lose all these memories,” she said.

https://youtu.be/FL8YzPh2Eo8

Now Sabah has transformed her war-torn home into a place of refuge. She rents two out of three floors of her home to those displaced by conflict.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)
http://www.unrefugees.org/2016/03/sabah-is-determined-to-rebuild-her-home/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 20, 2016, 06:07:49 pm
Quote
MKing: Don't say you weren't warned when you lift the lid on the crazy box.

I know.   ;)
I am completely open to being persuaded that the conspiracies are true, but it has to be based on evidence, not joining the dots.
I am completely up to speed on this, and have no doubt I will NOT be given evidence.
Abuse, certainly, especially from AG.

I could always spend my time on some other blog - moonofalabama has far fewer crazies on it.

I'm so sorry you feel so abused by the Law of Gravity and its "stubborn" applicability to the physics involved in the demolition of WTC 7. The last time I checked, New York City is on the surface of the Earth and WTC 7 was there too. The force of gravity there is 32 feet per second squared for ANY object, or part of one, in free fall. I was taught that "free fall" acceleration cannot be achieved when something is in the way of that free fall. When any part of a building being demolished is in the way because it ain't broke yet, you CANNOT achieve free fall.

And, in order to break all that stuff in the way OUT OF THE WAY in order to achieve FREE FALL, you need a very precise demolition sequence on EVERY support column, not just one or a few, that supports the building NEAR THE BASE OF THE BUILDING (where, in WTC 7' s case, there WERE NO FIRES). It takes at least two weeks ( rush job) to rig that demolition sequence. 

I guess you have other special knowledge about how to get around the laws of physics that you would like to enlighten us with.  ;)

As for MKing, it is expected that he would label "crazy" anyone that understands and can accurately measure what an acceleration of 32 feet per second squared is. That is what propagandists devoid of any ethical constraints whatsoever do to defend the propaganda lies they are paid to push.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

But if you pair of propagandists want to push this BULLSHIT effectively, I suggest you switch from fallacious debating techniques like appeals to authority or arrogant puffery to some really clever mendacity like, for example    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0),  claiming the following video below has been "doctored" to make it look like the building fell at free fall speeds. You really ought to do that because, as long as you agree that the following video was not "doctored", you expose, for all to see, your serial mendacity. 

Who are ya gonna believe, Palloy and MKing, or yer own lyin' eyes?
https://youtu.be/hycank4AxBo
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-100216204839.gif&hash=19170c176bf9497627349a00623922c8e88185b1)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 20, 2016, 06:27:03 pm
I think the simplest explanation is a little of both... they knew an attack was coming, didn't know when, didn't know where, had some idea it involved hijacking planes... so when the first plane crashed into a building, haha, that was some mighty bad piloting, continue reading to the kids... but when the second plane crashed, oh crap, this was a coordinated attack, run for your life!

So what brought down Building 7?
A small group of demolitions experts, of course... like I said, a little of both: vast government incompetence, small secret conspiracy.  There were plenty of investigations going on in Building 7 that powerful people were happy to have terminated.

No kidding.
Large numbers of case files for ongoing investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) were reportedly destroyed in the collapse. The Los Angeles Times reported that "substantial files were destroyed" for 3000 to 4000 of the SEC's cases. The EEOC reported that documents for 45 active cases were destroyed. 3   Before the attack, SEC investigations of corporate fraud by companies such as Enron and Worldcom were the subject of many news reports -- reports that virtually vanished in the wake of the attack.

http://911review.com/attack/wtc/b7.html (http://911review.com/attack/wtc/b7.html)

Also...

Why destroy such a valuable piece of real estate?

We know that WTC7's developer and lease-holder, Silverstein Properties, and WTC7's mortgage-holders, the Blackstone Group, Banc of America Securities, and General Motors Acceptance Corporation, received a Court-awarded amount of $861 million dollars from Industrial Risk Insurers in February 2002. We know that about $386 million had been invested in WTC7 before its destruction. The Court-award meant that Silverstein Properties and the mortgage-holders would share in about $475 million of profit. [8]

Silverstein Properties is headed by Larry Silverstein, a large contributor to Democrat and Republican office-holders. Silverstein Properties became the primary owner of the WTC Twin Towers less than two months before 9/11/01 (Westfield Malls was Silverstein Properties' minority-partner). Buying from the New York Port Authority, Silverstein Properties invested only $15 million toward a total purchase-price of $3.2 billion for a 99-year lease on holdings worth an estimated $8 billion. The low-rise office buildings WTC 4, 5, and 6, and 400,000 square feet of retail space were included with the Twin Towers in this deal. Silverstein Properties immediately took out extensive insurance policies on its new holdings.

One clause in Silverstein Properties' insurance policies for the new WTC holdings soon proved instrumental. Quoting the British Financial Times of September 14, 2001, the American Reporter wrote that ‘ the lease has an all-important escape clause: If the buildings are struck by “an act of terrorism”, the new owners' obligations under the lease are void. As a result, the new owners are not required to make any payments under their lease, but they will be able to collect on the loss of the buildings that collapsed or were otherwise destroyed and damaged in the attacks. ’


Again, a remarkable coincidence.

And speaking of coincidences, on September 10, 2001, SecrDef Donald Rumsfeld held a press conference to disclose that over $2 trillion in Pentagon funds could not be accounted for. According to a report by the Inspector General, the Pentagon could not account for 25 percent of what it spent. Such a disclosure normally might have sparked a huge scandal. However, events of the following day assured  the story disappeared down the memory hole.
Plus accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts looking into the missing funds were killed in the Pentagon attack.

Another coincidence.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 20, 2016, 10:04:21 pm
Quote
MKing : Don't say you weren't warned when you lift the lid on the crazy box.

I know.   ;)
I am completely open to being persuaded that the conspiracies are true, but it has to be based on evidence, not joining the dots.
I am completely up to speed on this, and have no doubt I will NOT be given evidence.
Abuse, certainly, especially from AG.

I could always spend my time on some other blog - moonofalabama has far fewer crazies on it.

I'm so sorry you feel so abused by the Law of Gravity and its "stubborn" applicability to the physics involved in the demolition of WTC 7. The last time I checked, New York City is on the surface of the Earth and WTC 7 was there too. The force of gravity there is 32 feet per second squared for ANY object, or part of one, in free fall. I was taught that "free fall" acceleration cannot be achieved when something is in the way of that free fall. When any part of a building being demolished is in the way because it ain't broke yet, you CANNOT achieve free fall.

And, in order to break all that stuff in the way OUT OF THE WAY in order to achieve FREE FALL, you need a very precise demolition sequence on EVERY support column, not just one or a few, that supports the building NEAR THE BASE OF THE BUILDING (where, in WTC 7' s case, there WERE NO FIRES). It takes at least two weeks ( rush job) to rig that demolition sequence. 

I guess you have other special knowledge about how to get around the laws of physics that you would like to enlighten us with.  ;)

As for MKing, it is expected that he would label "crazy" anyone that understands and can accurately measure what an acceleration of 32 feet per second squared is. That is what propagandists devoid of any ethical constraints whatsoever do to defend the propaganda lies they are paid to push.     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)


But if you pair of propagandists want to push this bullshit effectively, I suggest you switch from fallacious debating techniques like appeals to authority or arrogant puffery to some really clever mendacity like, for example     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0),  claiming the following video below has been "doctored" to make it look like the building fell at free fall speeds. You really ought to do that because, as long as you agree that the following video was not "doctored", you expose, for all to see, your serial mendacity. 

Who are ya gonna believe, Palloy and MKing, or yer own lyin' eyes?

https://youtu.be/hycank4AxBo

  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-100216204839.gif&hash=19170c176bf9497627349a00623922c8e88185b1)

Funnily enough, I AGREE that the acceleration cased by the force of gravity is 32 feet/second/second.  What is expecting was some kind of accurate timing of the fall to show that it actually DID fall with that acceleration.  Probably the videos run at 25 frames per second (whatever it is, it will be known by the TV station), and then YouTube may modify that, quite possibly cutting that in half.  Nevertheless that's as accurate a clock as we are going to get.

Then we know the height of the building, and each floor (corrected for the angle of view).  So we should be able to measure off the distance travelled (downwards) and time (in frames) and show whether it does or doesn't obey s = (1/2)*g*t2 .  I'm asking you to give me a link to where that has been done sufficiently well for me to check it.

Does it look to you like it falls at a constant speed?  It does to me.  But that's NOT what gravity does - it makes things fall faster and faster.

It may surprise you to know that I have been through this in detail before, and know more about it than a TV news reporter.

Quote
Quote
ACCELERATION at 32 feet per second squared was DOCUMENTED in WTC 7

That's something we can discuss.  Would you like to start, with the documentation?

I don't believe you, Palloy.
I believe you will read the following HARD EVIDENCE of 32 feet per second free fall acceleration and immediately question the link, instead of addressing the EVIDENCE. K-Dog has your number. So do I.

If we are wrong, prove it by admitting that the WTC 7 evidence of a preplanned demolition is irrefutable. I know MKing will never admit the truth. Perhaps you will.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fpng%2F200%2Femoticons%2Ffingerscrossed.png&hash=d56f8009d18b55f4cea7be68284c0521be92fc5d)


Quote
World Trade Center Building #7
A QUESTION OF PHYSICS

THE FACTS:

At 5:21 PM on September 11, 2001, World Trade Center Building 7 collapsed to the ground in approximately 6.5 seconds. This 47‐story building fell rapidly into a compact pile.

With several video cameras focused on Building 7, at the time of the onset of its collapse, the descent of the building is well documented.

This symmetrical and rapid descent of the entire upper portion of WTC 7 through the path of greatest resistance, poses a very significant physics question.


The entire upper portion of the building, for a period of 2.24 seconds, covering the vertical descent of 100 feet or 8 stories, accelerated in its descent at the rate known as “free fall”. The National Institute of Standards and Technology confirmed this in their final report on the collapse of WTC Building 7.



OUR UNDERSTANDING:

As we understand the laws of physics, this rate of free fall acceleration is only
possible in the absence of any significant resistance to the descent.

The rate of the building’s downward acceleration is, to us, proof of the simultaneous removal of the internal structures that would have offered resistance to the collapse of WTC Building 7.


http://www1.ae911truth.org/home/344-building-7-implosion-the-smoking-gun-of-911.html (http://www1.ae911truth.org/home/344-building-7-implosion-the-smoking-gun-of-911.html)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Fbe%2Fbead363502f8e7564038c7072c490cfc0da55bf30c42bb1f04983157e9ae7125.jpg&hash=d1cd0fdeefcea255c8c08d44a2972681ba3c90a3)



That clearly says that 8 stories fell at free-fall speed, although the tiny jpg image:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww2.ae911truth.org%2Fimages%2Finfoitems%2FWTC7_n1.jpg&hash=76daf71df9eb151c03361eaa6296eee449a12822)

shows that it was anything but that.  The chart has time in seconds across the bottom, and velocity (measured with upwards as positive and downwards as negative) on the left.

You can clearly see that only the section between 0.7 and 3.2 seconds has constant acceleration. It is much more difficult to make out (why such a tiny image?, and why jpg ? - the worst format to display charts) but I think you can see that in fact the fall is in a series of steps.  For short periods of time there is NO acceleration - this would be the time in which the steel is crumpling. 

Now when the acceleration stops and restarts, it is not the same as being under free-fall conditions (continuous acceleration).  The difference is small at first, but much more noticeable as the falling velocity picks up.

And what of the periods [0 - 0.7] and [3.2 - 6.5] seconds?  They didn't fit the free-fall pattern at all.

If you can find a better image of this chart, please show it, as it will prove my point better.

So "WTC-7 fell at free-fall speeds" is FALSE.

And I should add, to save time, that you don't need to reach the temperature of melting steel for steel to lose its strength - there numerous videos that prove this.

Next.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-220216203149.gif&hash=bd184b6edccce4045e246847a0c84e89bd5a18b6)

So, you wish to deny the NIST report with your own private hairsplitting interpretation of ONE GRAPH?

And Palloy, did you just say CONSTANT ACCELERATION? YES YOU DID!  ;D

THAT is what GRAVITY gives you at 32 feet per second squared, not CONSTANT SPEED. Your double talk about "continuous" not being "constant" is hair splitting of the most pathetic. CONSTANT ACCELERATION will give you a higher velocity at each point in a downward plot.

You KNOW that the PLOT for a 32 ft/second squared acceleration is EASILY predicted. WTC 7 FITS that plot almost EXACTLY.

If some debris prevented a perfect plot, that certainly does NOT give you the excuse to claim ONE deformed girder could justify the PLOTTED building collapse. But you gave it the old college try with your "continuous" versus "Constant" bit of baloney.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

NOBODY, not the NIST, nor anyone else, has come up with the fool assumption that the building DID NOT ACCELERATE throughout its descent EXCEPT YOU. It DID. The PLOT proves it.

The ONLY STRAW you have left to cling to is to assert that the ACCELERATION (which is NOT in question by the authorities) was LESS than 32 ft/second squared. YOU have not DARED give a lower value because you know you will be laughed off the stage.  ;D

If, however, you are privy to some OTHER VALUE FOR CONSTANT ACCELERATION that NIST is unaware of to enlighten us with, by all means do so.  ;)

You obviously do not want to face the truth
. So, please continue your laughably pathetic efforts at 9/11 "The Evil  Ayrabs did it" propaganda. The more you post, the clearer it becomes that YOU, like MKing, are totally bereft of objectivity.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

You have wasted enough of my time today. Nevertheless, I'm sure you will try to bob and weave your way around the next two videos. WHATEVAH, Mr. Failed Propagandist.

Dots? What "dots"?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191404.bmp&hash=007a2c20b76f970316a559a6e27cfd70c11f5998) Try Parade of  ELEPHANTS!  :o  


9/11 Video Clips Dan Rather Would Rather Not Show You     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)
What a COINCIDENCE that the words "NEW PEARL HARBOR" (see: 1998 neocon document     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) )are mentioned as a QUOTE from a government official...
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpm1.narvii.com%2F5869%2F6a64193d6770c3afd17406c78686c0eda32ded1c_hq.jpg&hash=fedf26e48d67cdd1e932380c7336ac18486d3fee)

NOTE: Must be watched at U-Tube
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_0eC3uns3pA (https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=_0eC3uns3pA)

Your Tax Dollars at Work on the Pentagon Lawn on 9/11 😈 


https://youtu.be/TG3SlyABrBk
Obviously they must have been looking, not for missile fragments  ;), but for the Al Queda passports (those dad gum passports have an amazing ability to survive explosions and steel melting fires      (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)).


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.ih8mud.com%2Fattachments%2Fh6a3a1d8f-jpeg.1060027%2F&hash=87f86e6f087faf3da4e4f65ca2a7fd65bbd0c27d)


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 21, 2016, 04:59:00 pm
Much talk about the free fall of building seven but there is something even more obvious than that.  The equipment shed on top of the elivator shafts which must have been in the center of the building falls into the roof  a fraction of a second before the roof in it's entirety starts to free fall.  This is clear  proof that demolition brought the building down.   That shed was on top of the strongest part of the building on an elivator shaft made of concrete which would have been the first structural component blown to insure the building fell in on itself.

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

And even Propagandist Palloy was forced to admit FREE FALL for a SIGNIFICANT part of the descent.

PALLOY SAID:
Quote
"You can clearly see that only the section between 0.7 and 3.2 seconds has constant acceleration."

The fact that initial split second acceleration is difficult to measure is ignored by Palloy to make the ridiculous and irresponsible claim that there "wasn't any acceleration" prior to the 0.7 mark. This is the cheapest rationalization I have seen him invent yet for some imagined gradual failure by a "critical" girder.

At any rate, AFTER the 3.2 second mark, any debris encountered is irrelevant to the FACT that free fall acceleration between the 0.7 and 3.2 second mark REQUIRED that ALL support structures be TOTALLY severed. That can ONLY occurred from a precisely timed demolition sequence.

But facts are inconvenient for Palloy. Notice how your in depth discussion of seismic signatures and sound was totally ignored by BOTH MKing and Palloy. YOU, as an engineer, KNOW what you are talking about. So, they avoid anything that that they cannot bob and weave around with double talk.

Palloy is a text book example of the old Tobacco industry meme that was handed off to the Fossil Fuel Industry to delay the truth. He tries to come off as that fine fellow interested in "objective" discussion when all he really is out there to do is throw DOUBT on absolutely everything said by opponents who defend the truth.

For him, for example, to say that he "surprisingly agrees" with my statement that free fall is 32 feet per second squared is one of his more insidiously clever statements. Any book on physics and gravity provides that figure. The ONLY reason he comes up with such TRIPE is to establish some arrogant puffery about how "much he knows" and how anything I say is "questionable" by his highness, Mr. "objectivity".

Finally, every time I expose his shenanigans, he plays the "verbally abused victim" card.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ftissue.gif&hash=f8d05db8e11569882e0effbdd719e2b2e95c6785) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fshame.gif&hash=88b5b0c8644862ef4930e3c7e3556db6c3bf600f)

Basically, while claiming his fishing expeditions and propaganda are an attempt to be "objective"  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16),THIS is Palloy's mission here in regard to what happened on 9/11 and why it happened.  :evil4:
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 21, 2016, 10:29:10 pm
Quote
The equipment shed on top of the elivator shafts which must have been in the center of the building falls into the roof  a fraction of a second before the roof in it's entirety starts to free fall.  This is clear  proof that demolition brought the building down. 

You obviously have a different concept of "clear proof".  I call that "pure guesswork", of the kind needed to make a conspiracy theory stand up.

Now you are being ridiculous.  The center of the building, the strongest part of the building because it is located over the elevator shaft clearly begins to fall first.  That is clear proof the elevator shaft failed first.  In an authentic conflagration elevator shafts are the last to fail.  Frequently they are the only part of a building left standing.  The fact that more people do not notice this obvious fact demonstrates how easily definitive proof is ignored in order to satisfy confirmation bias.  The bias here being that the U.S. Government could never be so evil.  And your bias is not to challenge but to sow doubt.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)


Quote
K-dog: In an authentic conflagration elevator shafts are the last to fail.  Frequently they are the only part of a building left standing.  The fact that more people do not notice this obvious fact demonstrates how easily definitive proof is ignored in order to satisfy confirmation bias.  The bias here being that the U.S. Government could never be so evil.  And your bias is not to challenge but to sow doubt.

That should be easily tested by you producing lots of photos of destroyed buildings with only the elevator shaft still standing.

WTF!!? "Last to fall" does not mean "still standing"! That is still another example your fried logic circuits.

And the following is pure speculation mixed with spurious accusations:

Palloy SAID
Quote
My contention is NOT that "USG could never be so evil", it is that 9/11 was far bigger than was necessary to justify going after Al Qaeda in Afghanistan (really a cover story for TAPI pipeline, etc).  It would also leave USG/Pentagon/CIA/FBI/Air Force looking like they were an incompetent and incapable of defending the homeland.  Nobody would hatch a stupid plot like that against themselves.  Evil doesn't come into it.

As for making doubly sure by demolishing the WTC towers with explosives, the mere transporting of the required amount of explosives through the streets of New York, which never sleeps, let alone setting them up without anyone noticing, is embarrassingly ridiculous and grasping at straws to make the conspiracy theory fit.  Now THAT is confirmation bias.

"Evil" is not now, or ever was, the issue here. K-dog was using a figure of speech. He has detailed the "how this works" in our gooberment for corporate profit on several occasions. He explained the "Last Man Standing" Neocon MO here recently. As usual, you play dumb.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)

Over one trillion dollars spent to make a whole bunch of war profiteers fabulously rich ALONG WITH THE "new Pearl Harbor" excuses for "security measures" police state SWAG in the USA is the ISSUE! If you want to claim that all that money is "insufficient motive" for the fun and games on 9/11, YOU are the one that needs his head examined.

NONE of that was possible WITHOUT 9/11! 9/11 was SINE QUA NON for "justifying" all the police state and war profiteering fun and games we-the-sheeple would not have tolerated otherwise. So spare us the "9/11 evil is confirmation bias malarchy" BULLSHIT.

YOU are the only one grasping at any hair splitting straw you can to deny the facts here.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ffly.gif&hash=b0526635e8b47d751b0e429925d73d78f9d79fc6)

ALL of the following buildings were destroyed using controlled demolition. NONE of them fell in a the PERFECT PLOT of free fall THROUGHOUT their descent that YOU demand as proof of controlled demolition. Therefore YOU have erected a nice big straw man to avoid the FACT that the signature of the descent plot of WTC 7 is of a controlled demolition. Pretend all you want. you do not have clue of what you are talking about.

https://youtu.be/syzKBBB_THE
https://youtu.be/GVQaVgJne6c

Below you will find, though you (Palloy) will try very hard not to, examples of what K-Dog just tried to explain to you about elevator shafts.

https://youtu.be/eem7d58gjno

Those BRIGHT FLASHES you see below JUST BEFORE WTC 7 is demolished are not, according to Palloy, part of a controlled DEMOLITION. They are, "confirmation bias" of the "crazies imagining things".  You see, when that "critical girder expanded" and gave way, it gave some "pretty colored lights", surely not explosions.
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https://youtu.be/4GY0yWXGaKs

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 22, 2016, 03:19:51 am
Quote
Agelbert said,

  Over one trillion dollars spent to make a whole bunch of war profiteers fabulously rich ALONG WITH THE "new Pearl Harbor" excuses for "security measures" police state SWAG in the USA is the ISSUE! If you want to claim that all that money is "insufficient motive" for the fun and games on 9/11

NONE of that was possible WITHOUT 9/11! 9/11 was SINE QUA NON for "justifying all the police state and war profiteering fun and games we-the-sheeple would not have tolerated otherwise

GO say's AMEN, AMEN, AMEN, It's always about the Benjamins when dealing with these godless swill, ALWAYS!

Thank You Agelbert, your confirmation of my beliefs is most welcome.
   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

And thank you, GO, for your comments.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) I have been going through some hard times emotionally (totally unrelated to 9/11) and your comments have lifted my sagging spirits.  8)
Title: Eisenhouer wanted to nuke North Korea. Later on in 1969, Nixon wanted to nuke North Korea too.
Post by: AGelbert on March 28, 2016, 11:43:49 pm
Michio Kaku - Top Secret Military War Plans
Eisenhouer wanted to nuke North Korea. Later on in 1969, Nixon wanted to nuke North Korea too.

Published on Dec 29, 2012

Professor Michio Kaku discusses the secret military projects that the United States had planned during the 1950's, such as President Eisenhower's OPLAN 852 to drop the atomic bomb on North Korea and President Nixon's Atomic Anex which had plans to use Thermonuclear weapons on the the China-Korean Border to end the Vietnam War.

Michio Kaku almost discusses the social perception of warfare and peace.
https://youtu.be/jTxaGzm_v8Q
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 03, 2016, 07:59:39 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Poster UB is attacking K-Dog. K-Dog, unlike UB, is objective both about Guy McPherson's valid science based approach to evidence of the causes of climate change catastrophe and the lack of objectivity (and moral bankruptcy) of Trump's pitch.

 
Kdog yesterday u didnt know what peer review was and now youre calling it a social force and facebook. Thats like Guy objecting to people suggesting the future is survivable in more than 15 yrs because "well its patriarchal", in a podcast.

Guy is the one acting like science should be a social force. The very scientists he tries to use distance themselves from him, and when giving interviews he has to admit his predictions were wrong.  U can not say "so what" because in some very general sense guy could be right. Placing himself as counterpart to the chief climate science denialist Lord Monkton does not help.

Tell us what u mean about trump being irrational and social force, because it seems you are only following the opposite extreme of another one again there.

I think this is pretty objective and science based, don't you?

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030416191147.jpeg&hash=1e2286d230b5a66731b3970f0a5fa0ae816f3348)

And Trump is a cheap, vulgar fascist. He uses wedge issues as emotional hot button bullshit to avoid facts and objectivity in order to demagogue his way into power. It's an old formula. And Trump is far less polished than Hitler was in his pitch. If you support Trump because of your ideology, then you are being irrationally emotional and unscientific.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

To show how much Trump MUST rely on manipulated emotion and the irrational result that would give him the presidency, just read the following:

Quote
GOP pollster Frank Luntz thinks that terror attacks on the scale of Paris or Brussels could rescue the Donald Trump ticket from defeat in November.

http://tarpley.net/gop-operatives-eye-terrorism-as-possible-outside-event-to-save-republican-ticket/ (http://tarpley.net/gop-operatives-eye-terrorism-as-possible-outside-event-to-save-republican-ticket/)

It's the old 911 trick all over again. And that was learned from the Goebbels technique for getting people to fight a war against their OBJECTVE and SCIENTIFIC interests through MANIPULATION of IRRATIONAL EMOTIONS, by the way. IOW, frightening people with LIES and Synthetic Terror.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2016, 04:51:17 pm
Cheney and neocon friends DID IT. Palloy doesn't want to go there, even if it is rubbed in his face with volumes of irrefutable evidence.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

The circumstantial evidence alone ( e. g. see the subsequent PROMOTION of the Naval officer in charge of the Pentagon "incompetent" response to the attacks from the exercises to the positioning of fighter jets on 911) is enough to remove any reasonable doubt that the Pentagon had EVERYTHING to do with coordinating AND EXECUTING the attacks. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-241013183046.jpeg&hash=51c9c4f17e747698c76c65c7c1814eff4f32c400)


But Palloy will hem, haw and hair split. Logic is not his thing. So it goes.  ::)

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Quote
AG: ... volumes of irrefutable evidence.  :emthdown:

The circumstantial evidence alone ...

Yet when given the opportunity to present the "irrefutable evidence", you could only come up with the "circumstantial evidence".  You clearly recognise there is a difference between the two sorts of evidence, but in your non-logical way of looking at the world, which is a mixture of logic and confirmation bias, you refuse to acknowledge your own confirmation bias and then attack my purely logical way of thinking with verbal abuse.  :emthdown:

If your theory is correct, then at some stage the US and Saudi Arabia (presumably G.W. Bush and Bandar bin Sultan) must have put their heads together and decided that to create a pretext for attacking Afghanistan, the Saudis would attack the US through their proxy force, Al Qaeda, and the US security agencies would look the other way while it happened, and hush it up after the fact.  All this despite the fact that Saudi Arabia SUPPORTED the Taliban and Al Qaeda, and that the US military/intelligence services would look completely incompetent in the eyes of the world.  Plus the fact that this outrageous plot would have had to remain absolutely secret for at least the lifetime of Bush (he was 55 at the time) despite the many US insiders that would have to have been involved.

And all to justify attacking Afghanistan openly instead of covertly.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)
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Palloy,   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)


AMAZING how you like LEAVE STUFF OUT of quotes.  ;)

My theory is correct. Everything published by the U.S. Government about 9/11 so far is total BULLSHIT. And this latest official response to the lobbied push for transparency is probably what is known in Intelligence circles as a "limited hang out". This is done several years after the event (the same thing was done with the JFK assassination) BECAUSE the government has been unsuccessful in bullshitting we-the-people to the point that parents are telling their kids that what they are being taught abut 9/11 in the history textbooks is not to be taken seriously, especially if any of them want to be architects, engineers or anyone that needs to study physics and materials science.

SO, the gooberment Propaganda TOOLS spin the story AGAIN with a pretense of a search for truth. The Government will NEVER officially admit Mens Rea complicity in the planning and execution of 9/11.

The only one peddling outrageous plots is YOU.

(https://cotocrew.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/wantedposter11.jpg)

ONLY the M.I.C. HAS ACCESS to NANO-THERMITE!

https://youtu.be/ezIU6ZxYU3A

Quote
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley

Quote
“Tritium is an important component in nuclear weapons. It is used to enhance the efficiency and yield of fission bombs and the fission stages of hydrogen bombs in a process known as “boosting” as well as in external neutron initiators for such weapons,” according Wikipedia; meaning that the only way it would be present in high trace levels is if a nuclear device (or three) detonated within proximity.

I think AG ought to get first go at whether this is logical or not: Tritium is a component of some nuclear weapons.  Tritium was found. Therefore nuclear weapons were used.


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)

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Why does Palloy think I'm a banana peel? Because he was told there was nothing under the banana peel. ;)



Sorry, you got that EXACTLY BACKWARDS, again.

The Gooberment said, in those NIST WTC 7 "studies" that you are so fond of quoting, that they DID NOT LOOK FOR nano (or any other kind of) Thermite.

Palloy, if you have feet of clay, and you don't want to ADMIT you have feet of clay, the only thing to do is to not look for clay. It's the only logical way for the murdering liars who did this state sponsored terrorism to cover their ass. IOW, the dog ate their lunch. Nothing to see, move along.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

Take your ridiculous mockery and ponder what a fool you are making of yourself with your "nuclear weapons" silliness.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgen152.gif&hash=d5b10968fe56c4cb95fae17cee3cb420a5f4e2da)


AG, are you saying you don't believe the Intellihub article?  It was a perfect example of how telling a partial, but incomplete, truth and then joining the dots, can give you "proof".  I would have thought that would be right up your alley.
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Did Palloy (again  ::) ) accidentially on purpose just confuse Agelbert's statements for a 'jump to conclusion irrational' "alley"? YEP!  :evil4:



Palloy, I know this is a real challenge for you, but please try to read for comprehension.  ;D


Limited Hang Out DEFINITION:

Jump to: navigation, search

Quote

A limited hangout or partial hangout is, according to former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Victor Marchetti, "spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further."[1][2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout)

Have a nice day.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191456.bmp&hash=a239c2fd76d20d142f1c54b961e22ebd0d2a4808)


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 16, 2016, 10:09:25 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Fbe%2Fbead363502f8e7564038c7072c490cfc0da55bf30c42bb1f04983157e9ae7125.jpg&hash=d1cd0fdeefcea255c8c08d44a2972681ba3c90a3)


The U.S. Military—What a Waste

Posted on Apr 11, 2016

By William D. Hartung / TomDispatch


SNIPPET:
From spending $150 million on private villas for a handful of personnel in Afghanistan to blowing $2.7 billion on an air surveillance balloon that doesn’t work, the latest revelations of waste at the Pentagon are just the most recent howlers in a long line of similar stories stretching back at least five decades.

Other hot-off-the-presses examples would include the Army’s purchase of helicopter gears worth $500 each for $8,000 each and the accumulation of billions of dollars’ worth of weapons components that will never be used.

And then there’s the one that would have to be everyone’s favorite Pentagon waste story: the spending of $50,000 to investigate the bomb-detecting capabilities of African elephants. (And here’s a shock: they didn’t turn out to be that great!) The elephant research, of course, represents chump change in the Pentagon’s wastage sweepstakes and in the context of its $600-billion-plus budget, but think of it as indicative of the absurd lengths the Department of Defense will go to when what’s at stake is throwing away taxpayer dollars.

Keep in mind that the above examples are just the tip of the tip of a titanic iceberg of military waste.   >:(

In a recent report I did for the Center for International Policy, I identified 27 recent examples of such wasteful spending totaling over $33 billion. And that was no more than a sampling of everyday life in the twenty-first-century world of the Pentagon.

The staggering persistence and profusion of such cases suggests that it’s time to rethink what exactly they represent. Far from being aberrations in need of correction to make the Pentagon run more efficiently, wasting vast sums of taxpayer dollars should be seen as a way of life for the Department of Defense. And with that in mind, let’s take a little tour through the highlights of Pentagon waste from the 1960s to the present.

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/what_a_waste_the_us_military_20160411
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 02, 2016, 07:11:17 pm
Heating Up.

RE


http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/02/us/seattle-may-day-protests/ (http://www.cnn.com/2016/05/02/us/seattle-may-day-protests/)

Molotov cocktails, violence at Seattle protests


Local news was saying that May Day protests were going to be bad and that there would be violence on Saturday night.  A thinking brain might have put two and two together and asked how the news was known before it even happened and a thinking brain would also arrive at the answer.

Myself I don't have to think so hard.  A few years ago I saw a buff navy seal type totally dressed in black smashing windows on the news with a practiced ease.  His easy and distinct body language made me recognize him at once.  I had been approached by him on a trip to Oakland California on a visit there where he had asked me leading questions concerning medical marijuana laws in Washington State hoping for an incriminating comment.  I had visited Okstradam University on that trip which was under surveillance at the time.  The impromptu interview happened on the street in front of the Okstradam building as I walked back outside.  A few months after my trip the University was raided.

Ever since WTO in Seattle, so many years ago May Day has seemed to attract a lot of 'training excercises' where terrorist attacks and response tactics are tested.  Sometimes the training excercises are actually announced but to make the drill as close to reality as possible sometimes they are not announced.  They just happen like the Boston Bombing did.  Homeland Security can't keep you safe unless you are afraid, very very afraid, and a few clowns throwing Molotov cocktails is just what the director ordered.  Budgets must be spent!



Yup.

And it was not long after the year 2000 (see the Battle for Seattle) that 911 just happened to come along in time to JACK UP depressed oil prices for over a decade, boost war profiteering swag and make everyone forget about gamed "free trade"  "agreements", never mind the demands at that time for cleaner energy, an end to subsidies for fossil fuels and a livable wage.

What a coincidence...

A dirty bomb in New York might just save dirty energy and Wall Street parasite bacon AGAIN.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

That is, if we-the-people haven't learned ANYTHING about how it works in this fascist fuckdom called Amerika in the last 16 years.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 10, 2016, 08:43:55 pm
Don’t forget how the Soviet Union saved the world from Hitler (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)

By Ishaan Tharoor

May 8, 2015

Story with videos and interesting photographs:


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060914180936.jpeg&hash=5e39d70fafe4e7190a6eebce34b740c58721de3f)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/05/08/dont-forget-how-the-soviet-union-saved-the-world-from-hitler/?wpisrc=nl_az_most
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 16, 2016, 06:17:17 pm
West Bank Solar Project Unites Muslims and Jews (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac)

Lorraine Chow | May 16, 2016 2:13 pm

Could a new solar project help promote peace between Israel and Palestine?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b) Build Israel Palestine, a nonprofit involving both Muslims and Jews in the U.S., is building a $100,000 solar array that will help power an underground water pump used by farmers in the village of Al-Auja, which is located in the embattled West Bank.

Project One: Increasing Water Capacity in West Bank is the first large project to be funded by Jews and Muslims in the U.S. and has both Israeli Jews and Palestinian Muslims on the technical team, the New York Times reported.

The solar facility will draw water from subterranean sources to irrigate a grove of palms growing Medjool dates. The project also involves working with agricultural experts on both sides of the border who will provide training in farming to the Al-Auja community.

Importantly, the initiative will help reduce water and electricity costs for the 45 farming families living in Al-Auja, a village of 5,000 Palestinians where electricity is often unreliable and expensive, and water is scarce and expensive to pump.

The New York Times reported that Palestinian farmers are embracing the project on one condition. According to Ben Jablonski, a former Manhattan investment banker and founder of Build Israel Palestine, the farmers insisted that the donors and engineers behind the project have no connections to the Israeli settlements in the West Bank on land Palestinians consider theirs.

According to the New York Times, “water is undeniably scarce in the Jordan Valley, and a longstanding complaint among Palestinians and their supporters is that it is unfairly distributed across the West Bank. A 2009 report by Amnesty International, for example, concluded that the area’s 450,000 Israeli settlers consumed as much as or more water than the Palestinian population of 2.3 million.”

Jablonski, who is Jewish, gave up his board seat with the Jewish National Fund, a nonprofit infrastructure developer linked to some West Bank settlements. He launched Build Israel Palestine in 2014 with Tarek Elgawhary, an Egyptian Muslim religious scholar and the CEO of the Coexist Foundation, an educational nonprofit based in Washington DC. Former New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg is one of the partners.

Build Israel Palestine states on its website that “this model of jointly financing tangible projects benefiting people on the ground will be an example for others to follow.”

The nonprofit, which is comprised of a community of Muslims, Jews and Christians in the U.S., says they are committed to helping people on the ground in Israel and Palestine through cross-border water projects by partnering with locals in Israel and Palestine.

“Note, our work is not a substitute for a political solution for the Israeli/Palestinian conflict,” the nonprofit states. “We are doing what we can to help people, which is needed regardless of the political climate.”

http://ecowatch.com/2016/05/16/west-bank-solar-project/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 30, 2016, 10:24:46 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Flibertyblitzkrieg.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F09%2FScreen-Shot-2015-09-11-at-10.03.46-AM.jpg&hash=26bc1f4dbf463a0fe84973be044cd0cab2f4dfa7)

As Our Past Wars Are Glorified This Memorial Day Weekend, Give Some Thought To Our Prospects Against The Russians And Chinese In World War III

May 28, 2016 by Paul Craig Roberts

source: http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/05/28/as-our-past-wars-are-glorified-this-memorial-day-weekend-give-some-thought-to-our-prospects-against-the-russians-and-chinese-in-world-war-iii/

The Saker reports that Russia is preparing for World War III, not because Russia intends to initiate aggression but because Russia is alarmed by the hubris and arrogance of the West, by the demonization of Russia, by provocative military actions by the West, by American interference in the Russian province of Chechnya and in former Russian provinces of Ukraine and Georgia, and by the absence of any restraint from Western Europe on Washington’s ability to foment war. http://thesaker.is/how-russia-is-preparing-for-wwiii/

Like Steven Starr, Stephen Cohen, myself, and a small number of others, the Saker understands the reckless irresponsibility of convincing Russia that the United States intends to attack her.

It is extraordinary to see the confidence that many Americans place in their military’s ability. After 15 years the US has been unable to defeat a few lightly armed Taliban, and after 13 years the situation in Iraq remains out of control. This is not very reassuring for the prospect of taking on Russia, much less the strategic alliance between Russia and China. The US could not even defeat China, a Third World country at the time, in Korea 60 years ago.

Americans need to pay attention to the fact that “their” government is a collection of crazed stupid fools likely to bring vaporization to the United States and all of Europe.

Russian weapons systems are far superior to American ones. American weapons are produced by private companies for the purpose of making vast profits. The capability of the weapons is not the main concern. There are endless cost overruns that raise the price of US weapons into outer space. The F-35 fighter, which is less capable than the F-15 it is supposed to replace, costs between $148 million and $337 million per fighter, depending on whether it is an Air Force, Marine Corps, or Navy model. http://www.cnbc.com/2014/07/31/how-dods-15-trillion-f-35-broke-the-air-force.html

A helmet for a F-35 pilot costs $400,000, more than a high end Ferrari. http://www.airforcetimes.com/story/military/2015/10/26/f-35-helmet-costs-400000-4-times-predecessor/73826180/

(Washington forces or bribes hapless Denmark into purchasing useless and costly F-35: http://sputniknews.com/news/20160528/1040395012/denmark-f-35-military-nato-lockheed.html)

It is entirely possible that the world is being led to destruction by nothing more than the greed of the US military-security complex. Delighted that the reckless and stupid Obama regime has resurrected the Cold War, thus providing a more convincing “enemy” than the hoax terrorist one, the “Russian threat” has been restored to its 20th century role of providing a justification for bleeding the American taxpayer, social services, and the US economy dry in behalf of profits for armament manufacturers.

However, this time Washington’s rhetoric accompanying the revived Cold War is far more reckless and dangerous, as are Washington’s actions, than during the real Cold War. Previous US presidents worked to defuse tensions. The Obama regime has inflated tensions with lies and reckless provocations, which makes it far more likely that the new Cold War will turn hot. If Killary gains the White House, the world is unlikely to survive her first term.

All of America’s wars except the first—the war for independence—were wars for Empire. Keep that fact in mind as you hear the Memorial Day bloviations about the brave men and women who served our country in its times of peril. The United States has never been in peril, but Washington has delivered peril to numerous other countries in its pursuit of hegemony over others.

Today for the first time in its history the US faces peril as a result of Washington’s attempts to assert hegemony over Russia and China.

Russia and China are not impressed by Washington’s arrogance, hubris, and stupidity. Moreover, these two countries are not the native American Plains Indians, who were starved into submission by the Union Army’s slaughter of the buffalo.

They are not the tired Spain of 1898 from whom Washington stole Cuba and the Philippines and called the theft a “liberation.”

They are not small Japan whose limited resources were spread over the vastness of the Pacific and Asia.

They are not Germany already defeated by the Red Army before Washington came to the war.

They are not Granada, Panama, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, or the various Latin American countries that General Smedley Butler said the US Marines made safe for “the United Fruit Company” and “some lousy bank investment.”

An insouciant American population preoccupied with selfies and delusions of military prowess, while its crazed government picks a fight with Russia and China, has no future.

Dr. Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy and associate editor of the Wall Street Journal. He was columnist for Business Week, Scripps Howard News Service, and Creators Syndicate. He has had many university appointments. His internet columns have attracted a worldwide following. Roberts’ latest books are The Failure of Laissez Faire Capitalism and Economic Dissolution of the West, How America Was Lost, and The Neoconservative Threat to World Order.


http://thesaker.is/as-our-past-wars-are-glorified-this-memorial-day-weekend-give-some-thought-to-our-prospects-against-the-russians-and-chinese-in-world-war-iii/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 04, 2016, 05:53:31 pm
As with Occupy, the revolution will not be televised.


Media Blackout As France Witnesses Biggest Revolution In 200 Years (http://yournewswire.com/media-blackout-as-france-witnesses-biggest-revolution-in-200-years/)
(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/_An6iCCo62M/hqdefault.jpg)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)
(https://allthoughtsworkoutdoors.files.wordpress.com/2011/08/p9047017-030close-up.jpg)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 08, 2016, 03:54:51 pm
Victoria Nuland is a neocon warmonger of the most insidious and bat S H I T crazy sort that the neocons have ever spawned. She has been behind every baseless aggression bordering Russia for the last decade. She has consistently blamed Russia for aggression that she and her neocon pals in the state department planned, coordinated and executed. 

She WANTS a nuclear war with Russia!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fp8.gif&hash=34db9228a959b3b83fc65b38a1aa92a40d56f976)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F126fs2277341.gif&hash=1a8375f11d76a653bcb48e30eaa7b652175f029d)


Elect The Warmonger Killary And You Will Have Victoria Nuland As Secretary Of State


May 20, 2016

Elect The Warmonger Killary And You Will Have Victoria Nuland As Secretary Of State Says David Stockman And The Result Will Be World War III Says PCR

And that brings us to the deplorable Kagan clan—–Washington’s leading resident family of war-mongering neo-cons. The odds are that, if elected President, Hillary would likely choose one of them——her protégé during her stint in the Obama administration, Victoria Nuland—– as Secretary of State. Yet that would be lights out for any hope of caging Washington’s imperial ambitions and reducing the massive and utterly unnecessary burden of current defense spending. The truth is, there are fewer greater menaces in the Imperial City today than Victoria Nuland.

Not only does she happen to be married to Bob Kagen, the leading neocon guru of global interventionism and regime change, but she earned her spurs as a key aid to Dick Cheney.

No matter. When the American public naively thought it elected the “peace” candidate in 2008, Nuland just changed her Jersey, joined Hillary’s team at State, and by 2013 was assistance secretary for European Affairs.

And that’s when Nuland’s rampage of everlasting shame began. She was the main architect of the coup in Kiev in February 2014 that overthrow the constitutionally elected government of the Ukraine, thereby commencing the whole sequence of confrontations with Russia and the full-throated demonization of Vladimir Putin that has followed.

Needless to say, overthrowing an elected government on Russia’s front doorstep——and thereby rekindling ancient tensions between the nationalistic Ukrainians and neo-Nazis who seized power with Washington’s help and the Russian speaking populations in the Donbas and Crimea——had nothing to do with the safety and security of the American people.

It was a straight-out imperial reach designed to bring the Ukraine into NATO and to extend Washington’s hegemony to the entirely of the old Warsaw bloc geography. So doing, Nuland almost single-handedly restarted the cold war and pulled the US and Europe into a dragnet of costly economic sanctions that are completely pointless and unnecessary.

And Hillary Clinton has been onboard for this misbegotten campaign from the get-go. At one point she actually likened Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler.

From http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-dreadful-kagan-clan-hillarys-warmongers-in-waiting/ (http://davidstockmanscontracorner.com/the-dreadful-kagan-clan-hillarys-warmongers-in-waiting/)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 09, 2016, 04:18:52 pm
Sierra Club Endorses Hillary Clinton

Allison Chin, Sierra Club | June 9, 2016 12:34 pm

http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/09/sierra-club-endorses-hillary-clinton/ (http://ecowatch.com/2016/06/09/sierra-club-endorses-hillary-clinton/)

Agelbert COMMENT: Thank you Sierra Club, for paving the way for Hillary Clinton to remove any and all barriers to Fracking in the USA and the world, as she did during her tenure as Secretary of State.

We are also pleased that Victoria Nuland is President Hillary Clinton's pick for Secretary of State.

Thank you Sierra Club, for ensuring a huge increase in the price of fossil fuels (i.e. price shock bonanza!) from the war tensions that Victoria Nuland, neocon State Department queen of the "let's go to war with Russia" group will joyfully generate.

We are ready, willing and able to patriotically and in altruistic fashion (OF COURSE!), work arm in arm with the Clinton Administration to provide peace, prosperity and lots of cheap, clean energy to the world for the welfare of all humanity.


Signed,

Your Loyal Servants and Political Campaign Friends from Exxon, Schlumberger, Halliburton, etc. (you get the idea).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fquotes.lifehack.org%2Fmedia%2Fquotes%2Fquote-Albert-Camus-the-welfare-of-the-people-in-particular-102493_1.png&hash=f1662e70d144d45c860b4931cd77e84a1f442fa8)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 09, 2016, 09:01:57 pm
http://in.reuters.com/article/global-conflict-peaceindex-idINKCN0YU0CL (http://in.reuters.com/article/global-conflict-peaceindex-idINKCN0YU0CL)


World | Wed Jun 8, 2016 9:59am IST
Related: World
Global violence worsens, driven by Middle East conflicts - peace index
By Alex Whiting

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.reutersmedia.net%2Fresources%2Fr%2F%3Fm%3D02%26amp%3Bd%3D20160608%26amp%3Bt%3D2%26amp%3Bi%3D1140430814%26amp%3Bw%3D644%26amp%3Bfh%3D%26amp%3Bfw%3D%26amp%3Bll%3D%26amp%3Bpl%3D%26amp%3Bsq%3D%26amp%3Br%3DLYNXNPEC57063&hash=00d17139f801ae0a76acf3f202be9e8570857b84)
A civil defence member carries an injured girl at a site hit by airstrikes in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria June 2, 2016. REUTERS/Khalil Ashawi

LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) - The world has become increasingly violent with deaths from conflict at a 25-year high, terrorist attacks at an all-time high and more people displaced than at any time since World War Two, the 2016 Global Peace Index showed on Wednesday.

The annual index, which measures 23 indicators including incidents of violent crime, countries' levels of militarisation and weapons imports, said intensifying conflicts in the Middle East were mostly to blame.

But beyond the Middle East, the world was actually becoming more peaceful, researchers behind the index said.

"Quite often, in the mayhem which is happening in the Middle East currently, we lose sight of the other positive trends," said Steve Killelea, founder of the Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP), which produces the index.

"If we look in the last year, if we took out the Middle East ... the world would have become more peaceful," Killelea told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

More than 100,000 were killed in conflict in 2014, up from nearly 20,000 in 2008. Syria, where nearly 67,000 people were killed in 2014, accounted for the bulk of the increase, according to the index.

The United Nations has said the number of displaced people is likely to have "far surpassed" a record 60 million last year.

The index showed that most attacks it classed as terrorist were concentrated in five countries - Syria, Iraq, Nigeria, Afghanistan and Pakistan.

The economic cost of violence over the past decade was $137 trillion - greater than the global GDP in 2015, the IEP showed.

The indicator which improved the most in the last year was funding for U.N. peacekeeping operations, which reached record highs in 2016, IEP said.

"However, peacebuilding and peacekeeping spending remains proportionately small compared to the economic impact of violence, representing just 2 percent of global losses from armed conflict," Killelea said in a statement.

More than 120,000 U.N. peacekeepers are currently deployed in 16 operations worldwide. The largest are in Democratic Republic of Congo, Sudan's Darfur region, South Sudan, Mali, Central African Republic and Lebanon.

Another improvement in peace, is a 10 percent fall in global military spending in the last three years, IEP said.

BUILDING LASTING PEACE

Europe is the most peaceful region in the world, although the region's peace score dropped in the wake of attacks in Paris and Brussels. Deaths from such attacks in Europe have more than doubled over the last five years.

Last year, world leaders agreed to "significantly reduce all forms of violence" by 2030 and find lasting solutions to conflict and insecurity, as part of a set of Sustainable Development Goals to fight inequality and extreme poverty.

Building lasting peace takes more than just improving security, Killelea said.

"Quite often as an international community we lose sight of that and try and have a one shoe fits all (approach)," he said.

"For me the most profound thing about the index is the ability to use it ... to better understand the qualities ... which create peaceful societies," Killelea said.

Iceland is the world's most peaceful country listed in the index, followed by Denmark, Austria, New Zealand and Portugal.

The least peaceful country is Syria, followed by South Sudan, Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia.

(Reporting by Alex Whiting, Editing by Katie Nguyen.; Please credit the Thomson Reuters Foundation, the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, that covers humanitarian news, women's rights, trafficking, corruption and climate change. Visit news.trust.org)


It's all so sad and all so unnecessary.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2955.gif&hash=ddc12d8bdb1bc63b7998a6b086b79a71b7bda755)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

Did you know that Syria is where Golden Hamsters were first found?

If, as reported, about 12% of the human population of Syria has been killed, imagine how many animals have died in this human greed based insanity.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cool-small-pets.com%2Fimage-files%2Fhamster.jpg&hash=c59adc3350c34e364641f954f4aebbbe7624e2bc)
War SUCKS!
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 30, 2016, 08:57:55 pm
Why China Matters – U.S. Could Lose Offshore Drilling Rights To EEZ   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191258.bmp&hash=e4ed21caaca822f7445ccafd39f49a9f84be90ca)     (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191456.bmp&hash=a239c2fd76d20d142f1c54b961e22ebd0d2a4808)

July 29, 2016 by Bloomberg

 
(https://i1.wp.com/gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1x-1-1.jpg)
Okinotorishima is an island in Japan’s economic zone. Image via Bloomberg

By Peter Coy (Bloomberg) The U.S. and other coastal nations could lose millions of square nautical miles of ocean that are now in their exclusive economic zones. The loss would be an indirect result of an arbitration panel’s ruling on China’s dispute with the Philippines in the South China Sea.

Largely overlooked in the tribunal’s July 12 decision was a strict interpretation of which dry land is entitled to a 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone—the surrounding ocean where a nation has sole rights to fish, drill for oil, and search for minerals. While not a legal precedent, the 479-page ruling could influence other judges and arbitrators because of its rigorous argument. “These arbitrators knew that this case was being watched around the world,” says Paul Reichler, a partner in law firm Foley Hoag and lead counsel for the Philippines. “They wanted it to be as close to perfect as possible.”

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea doesn’t allow nations to declare exclusive economic zones around “rocks which cannot sustain human habitation or economic life of their own.”
What that’s meant has never been clear. Many countries, including the U.S. and Japan, have claimed exclusive economic zones around tiny atolls and outcroppings of rock. The U.S. hasn’t ratified the treaty because of opposition from congressional Republicans, who fear it would open the U.S. to lawsuits. But the U.S. “scrupulously” follows the treaty’s provisions anyway, says James Kraska, a law professor at the U.S. Naval War College. Push could come to shove if another nation seeks to fish or drill or mine in waters surrounding some dinky U.S. rock.

The tribunal concluded that having people live on an island doesn’t prove habitability if food and water comes from elsewhere. Countries will “now have a greatly reduced incentive” to fight over ownership of rocks (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fpng%2F200%2Femoticons%2Ffingerscrossed.png&hash=d56f8009d18b55f4cea7be68284c0521be92fc5d) if they no longer have exclusive zones, Kraska says. On the minus side, fisheries might be depleted quickly if countries lose the ability to curb fishing in these zones.

The bottom line: An arbitration panel’s definition of what an island is could undermine nations’ claims of economic zones around rock outcroppings.


 
(https://i2.wp.com/gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/1x-1.png)
https://gcaptain.com/why-china-matters-u-s-could-loose-offshore-drilling-rights-to-eez/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 23, 2016, 12:31:51 pm
Western Media Credibility In Free Fall Collapse

Paul Craig Roberts

The latest from the Gallup Poll is that only 32% of Amerians trust the print and TV media to tell the truth. http://www.gallup.com/poll/195542/americans-trust-mass-media-sinks-new-low.aspx
Republicans, 18 to 49 year old Americans, and independents trust the media even less, with trust rates of 14%, 26%, and 30%.

The only group that can produce a majority that still trusts the media are Democrats with a 51% trust rate in print and TV reporting. The next highest trust rate is Americans over 50 years of age with a trust rate of 38 percent.

The conclusion is that old people who are Democrats are the only remaining group that barely trusts the media. This mistaken trust is due to their enculturation. For older Democrats belief in government takes the place of Republican belief in evangelical Christianity. Older Democrats are firm believers that it was government under the leadership of President Franklin D. Roosevelt that saved America from the Great Depression. As the print and TV media in the 21st century are firmly aligned with the government, the trust in government spills over into trust of the media that is serving the government. As the generation of Democrats enculturated with this mythology die off, Democratic trust rates will plummet toward Republican levels.

It is not difficult to see why trust in the media has collapsed. The corrupt Clinton regime, which we might be on the verge of repeating, allowed a somewhat diverse and independent media to be 90% acquired by six mega-corporations. The result was the disappearance of independence in reporting and opinion.

The constraints that corporate ownership and drive for profits put on journalistic freedom and resources reduced reporting to regurgitations of government and corporate press releases, always the cheapest and uncontroversial way to report.

With journalistic families driven out of journalism by estate taxes, the few remaining newspapers become acquisitions like a trophy wife or a collector Ferrari. Jeff Bezos, CEO and founder of amazon.com, handed over $250 million in cash for the Washington Post. Jeff might be a whiz in e-commerce, but when it comes to journalism he could just as well be named Jeff Bozo.

On September 12, Washington Post reporter Cindy Boren dropped the Washington Post below the level of the supermarket tabloid, National Enquirer. One must wonder where her editor was. Drunk perhaps? The Washington Post actually reported that a Nigerian MD, Bennet Omalu, “whose credentials and tenacity are well known,” has concluded that Hillary Clinton’s obvious medical problems could be due to her being poisoned by a Putin-Trump conspiracy.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/early-lead/wp/2016/09/12/the-man-who-discovered-cte-thinks-hillary-clinton-may-have-been-poisoned/

One could possibly conclude that Cindy Boren and her Washington Post editor were having fun with Omalu, except that the article repeated the unfounded allegation that circumstantial evidence according to a UK inquiry associates Putin with the poisoning death of Litvinenko.

In other words, first Litvinenko, now Hillary.

If circumstantial evidence is to be the Washington Post’s guide, then clearly that evidence suggests that the neoconservatives, well-ensconced in high government positions and desperate for a New Pearl Harbor in order to launch their wars of hegemony in the Middle East, are responsible for 9/11.

Yet the Washington Post has a full-time reporter whose job is to disparage conspiracy theories while the Washington Post itself launches the conspiracy theory of the century: Putin And Trump Conspiracy Poisons US Democratic Candidate for President. http://www.strategic-culture.org/news/2016/09/15/washington-post-grasps-crazy-conspiracy-theory-support-hillary-clinton.html

If intelligence, or perhaps simply sufficient time in Americans’ lives to investigate the news, were not in such short supply, possibly Americans would reflect on what the benefit is of being driven by Washington into conflict with Russia and China.

It most certainly will not be victory in war, as we all will be dead.

http://www.paulcraigroberts.org/2016/09/16/western-media-credibility-in-free-fall-collapse-paul-craig-roberts/




Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 04, 2016, 01:16:12 pm
So the US suspends cooperation with Russia over Syria, and Russia blames US of working with terrorists all along.  I hope there is an understanding on where the US can and cannot fly in Syria, otherwise we are going to see US planes being shot down by Russian S-400 missiles, and the US response to that.

https://www.rt.com/usa/361482-bilateral-suspended-syria-ceasefire/ (https://www.rt.com/usa/361482-bilateral-suspended-syria-ceasefire/)
US suspends bilateral contact with Russia over Syria
3 Oct, 2016

//

https://www.rt.com/news/361502-syria-us-devil-terrorists/ (https://www.rt.com/news/361502-syria-us-devil-terrorists/)
‘Deal with the devil’: US ‘ready to ally with terror’ to overthrow Assad – Russia Foreign Ministry
3 Oct, 2016

//Meanwhile, U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland is set to visit Moscow this week. However, she is expected to discuss solely Ukraine and implementation of the Minsk agreements, according to the State Department’s press release.

The heavy hand of the Zionist neocons continues to be evident. It's a shame that no one in this country will ever hear this POV.

And what would you give to be a fly on the wall at the meeting with Victoria "**** the EU" Nuland.


Russia understands the situation and has the moral high ground here. The U.S. is not now, or ever has been, an honest broker in Syria.

The U.S. is the out of control, predatory capitalist, neocon crazy uncle here.

That said, I firmly believe that the tools in out insane military and state department pushing this confrontation will soon be deciding to "spend more time with their families".

There still are some people in our intelligence community that are as sane and sober as the Russians. WWIII ain't gonna happen. Mark my words.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 30, 2016, 03:27:06 pm
Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky Have Their First Public Conversation (Video)

Posted on Oct 26, 2016
Quote


Ralph Nader and Noam Chomsky had an important discussion about America’s current “electoral extravaganza,” climate change, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and several other topics during an hour-long interview.

https://youtu.be/M6c1FLWbNP4

http://www.truthdig.com/avbooth/item/noam_chomsky_ralph_nader_recent_first_public_conversation_20161026

Agelbert NOTE:
Take the indisputable facts these worthies state about the dire situation we are in (although they do admit there is some hope  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fpng%2F200%2Femoticons%2Ffingerscrossed.png&hash=d56f8009d18b55f4cea7be68284c0521be92fc5d)) to heart or keep believing the myth that the US is a free country to your detriment, chagrin and ultimate demise; Choose LIFE or you will die miserably in denial. 

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 09, 2016, 08:26:52 pm
November 9, 2016
The Urgency of Now - A Message from Paul Jay

Paul Jay concludes our election night coverage with a promise to our viewers to be a platform for movements trying to organize.

https://youtu.be/JAilK8WV-lY

TRANSCRIPT of above Video: PAUL JAY, TRNN: As I said earlier, I don't think there's a party more responsible, assuming you're not happy about Trump's victory, if you are then I'm surprised you're watching us. But for other people who are not so happy and we've talked about the policies of the Clinton administration, of course Bush and the continuation of the economic policies of the Obama administration.

I think it’'s primarily the economic policies that are responsible for this. She asked Trump's language of noninterventionism in foreign affairs certainly appealed to people. But it was fundamentally the shifting of even more vast amounts of wealth into fewer and fewer hands that created this condition and the promises of Donald Trump I think by any objective measure will not alleviate those problems for people but as one of our guests said earlier, this is like, giving the finger, excuse me. This is just 'we don't believe any of you and we kind of don't believe Trump either but we're going to just give you the finger up because we don't know what else to do here'.

The xenophobia, the racism, all of this we've seen before in history. There's nothing new about blaming the other, blaming minorities. There's certainly nothing new in American history about this. We're going to be opening up a restaurant in the Real News building called Ida B.’s table and it's named after Ida B. Wells who was a very courageous journalist, investigative journalist, African American woman who exposed systemic lynching. One of the things in her investigation she exposed was that when unemployment went up amongst white workers, lynchings went up. And that it wasn’t just anger from white workers, that it was being deliberately organized by employers to let white workers vent by going out and lynching black workers. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978)


So there's nothing new in what we're seeing here. But as dismal as this all might look for progressive people and I personally do think this is not the best of scenarios that could have happened tonight. There is also something here which is that the economic situation is smoke and mirrors. The economic recovery is false as far as any serious economist I've talked to. The federal bank threw tons of money at banks to make them look solvent. But the real bottom line of the economy is that demand low wages have hardly moved at all. Real demand is extremely low and it's going to get lower. Trump's policies are far from what he promised, are not going to increase jobs.

Certainly, not going to increase worker’s' wages which means the recession is likely to deepen here. The geopolitical threat in spite of Trump's talk, I don't personally believe it. I said personally in the broadcast I think it's going to be more of a Cheney situation with very aggressive foreign policy by Pence. Pence's critique of Clinton is she was weak on Russia. Pence and Trump have talked about we're going to put an end to ISIS. They've talked about bombings at a great scale. But Pence is as provocative with Russia as Clinton is. We'll see.

The number one problem we're all facing here, the really deep crisis and perhaps the most dangerous thing about what happened tonight is that we are now going to have a congress and a president that don't believe human caused climate change is real. If there was ever a time for all of these movements, whether it's black lives matter, whether it's climate change and whether it's workers fighting for rights. If it was ever a time for all of these movements to converge, merge, and not just take to the streets but work on various kind of electoral strategies and mass organizing, clearly it's now.

At the Real News we hope to be a platform for discussing and debating what comes next and we've done some of that tonight. We're going to continue. And let me once again stress the importance of the climate change issue which got almost no discussion whatsoever in this presidential election. We have a new film out called the Koch Brothers war on climate science. Well, Koch Brothers are going to get their way for the next two years until 2018 and maybe beyond.

It’s a very dangerous time. Very dangerous moment. But we humans have seen very dangerous times before. Whether it'’s before leading into the first world war before leading into the second world war. I say that with some meaning because we discussed a little bit earlier that there's going to be an I think disillusionment here of Trump supporters where their lives just don't get better. It doesn't matter that we know what is really coming down the pike here. Given this Trump-Pence alliance and Pence's connection with Karl Rove and the global agenda of these people, and it's not just these people because certainly democrats do the same thing. But the answer they have in these situations is war. And we need to be very aware of this and on guard for this.

So, we hope on the Real News that we will obviously be following all of this and we hope you will join us. So, thanks for sticking with us tonight and we'’ll be back tomorrow to talk about the post-election fall out and as I said we will be a platform in terms of everyone discussing what needs to be done and what needs to be done next. Thanks for joining us on the Real News Network.

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17636
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 02, 2016, 06:11:00 pm
(https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-B2-o8t-v16o/WEDQ2axJFPI/AAAAAAAAUB4/PyKTDiVQ2bsSNSNPyQ7Lx0aPuNOpnlLCgCLcB/s1600/william-casey-cia-quote.JPG)
Editor Of Major Newspaper Says He Planted Stories For CIA

http://jforpeace.blogspot.com/2016/12/editor-of-major-newspaper-says-he.html
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 03, 2016, 06:43:46 pm
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/was_11_8_a_new_9_11_20161202
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 06, 2016, 01:13:00 pm
https://youtu.be/5MKWPWD3C-0

Quote
Jon Eagle Sr.

22 hours ago.

I witnessed something powerful and profound today. Wes Clark Jr and the assembled veterans took a knee and collectively asked for forgiveness for the genocide and war crimes committed by the United States Military against tribal nations in this country.

Leksi Leonard Crow Dog on behalf of the tribes in attendance accepted and asked for forgiveness for any hurt that might have been caused June 25, 1876 when the Great Sioux Nation defeated the 7th Cavalry.

The last thing he said to the veterans was, "... and today we forgive and ask for world peace." All the veterans replied in a single unified voice, "WORLD PEACE!!!!"

The Native Veterans filed through the ranks, shaking hands and giving each other hugs. There were a lot of warriors with tears in their eyes.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.uglyhedgehog.com%2Fupload%2F2012%2F8%2F14%2F1344970546338-awesome_mc_ht_smiley.gif&hash=3ae7abfc4fed4417a941b6f116204b754f1e587f)



Veterans at Standing Rock shock tribe members, beg forgiveness for war crimes against tribal nations

By Jen Hayden   

Monday Dec 05, 2016 ·  4:13 PM EST

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/5/1607591/-Veterans-at-Standing-Rock-shock-tribe-members-beg-forgiveness-for-war-crimes-against-tribal-nations

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 08, 2016, 05:17:50 pm
Quote
“The political crisis arrives when the people sense that the prevailing order is built on a foundation of oppressions and lies.”

White Supremacy, U.S. Exceptionalism and Capitalist Dogma Are All ‘Fake News’

Posted on Dec 8, 2016


By Glen Ford / Black Agenda Report

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/white_supremacy_us_exceptionalism_and_20161208


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 10, 2016, 09:54:17 pm
https://youtu.be/NeJmLmmbTI8

December 7, 2016

The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War, Day One: John Cavanaugh

On Day 1 of the CODEPINK #IraqTribunal, participants provided testimony on the lies that were used to invade Iraq.

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:17868:The-People%27s-Tribunal-on-the-Iraq-War%2C-Day-One%3A-John-Cavanaugh
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 16, 2016, 08:30:07 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_1593.gif&hash=628238f2fc26695937f6e97b91b050976065743b)

https://youtu.be/2-kh5I-Mn3g
Dec. 12, 2016: We Are Walking In To Dangerous Territory...

Agelbert NOTE: For those who think this is "no big deal", just a couple of days later the Chinese made it quite clear that the ONE China policy must NOT be interfered with (referring to Trump's call to the President of Taiwan AND probably other belligerent talk by the STUPID Trump Team).

But the Chinese were not done just with words. They took ACTION (see bellow). I think the Chinese KNOW Trump is a moron and a bluffing con artist with no real stuff behind his demagoguery. The Chinese are calling Trump's bluff. If he doesn't back down, we are all in a world of trouble.


China seizes US naval probe in South China Sea

Posted 17 Dec 2016 00:27 Updated 17 Dec 2016 05:46

SNIPPET:
The incident comes as President-elect Donald Trump has repeatedly infuriated Beijing, by questioning longstanding US policy on Taiwan, calling Beijing a currency manipulator and threatening Chinese imports with punitive tariffs.

"This was very likely a highly planned and escalatory move to show China will not take matters lightly when it comes to" Trump, said Harry Kazianis, the director of defense studies at the conservative Center for the National Interest.

"Beijing is showing it has the capability to respond in a time and place of its choosing."

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/china-seizes-us-naval-probe-in-south-china-sea/3373900.html
 
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 18, 2016, 08:08:17 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

December 18, 2016

Trump's Realignment with Putin's Russia

Leo Panitch and Paul Jay discuss how Trump's admiration for Putin's authoritarianism and his close alliances with capitalist oligarchs leads away from neoliberal international rule-making and towards crude deal-making.

https://youtu.be/IjsjGHqyCRg

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17928
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 19, 2016, 11:27:52 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Well, China tested Trump and he failed miserably to show any decorum or statesmanship. Expect China to play this moronic demagogue like a violin.

SNIPPET from the news article:

Quote
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump weighed in to the row on Saturday, tweeting: “China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters – rips it out of water and takes it to China in unprecedented act.”

China Will Give Back Drone, Criticizes U.S. “Hyping Up” the Incident

https://gcaptain.com/china-will-give-back-drone-criticizes-u-s-hyping-incident/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 22, 2016, 01:18:04 pm
China Tells Trump's Fools, Want A Trade War? We'll Start By Targeting Republican States. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fcowboypistol.gif&hash=2dc97f743dffca22404e6e4e0822765e60b33f38)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpm1.narvii.com%2F5869%2F6a64193d6770c3afd17406c78686c0eda32ded1c_hq.jpg&hash=fedf26e48d67cdd1e932380c7336ac18486d3fee)

By pollwatcher   

Thursday Dec 22, 2016 · 10:08 AM EST
Comments  (182 New)   179   
 
Many of our Allies and Foes are trying to figure out what the man-child psycho is going to end up doing.  As with all members of the GOP cult, you can’t believe a single word they tell you, and the sooner we Democrats learn that, the better off we’re going to be.

Well China is having none of this nonsense of saying one thing one moment and the complete opposite the next.  If Trump and his band of fools wants to talk about a trade war with China, China is going to be ready to respond in a way that hurts Trump supporters first.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2FBanane21.gif&hash=ea8aefd6edec2a8f8e52b83aa2874cd9f97fe9ae) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fz%2Fchinese-emoticon-22648577.jpg&hash=e5f417f773692d246a108dcc451657cb8b2c6e05)


Yesterday, Trump named Peter Navarro as a trade adviser.  Navarro has been a big critic of trade with China.  Well China is taking no time to respond:

Trump team’s threats to name China a currency manipulator and to erect high tariffs against it—drew fire in China outside official circles.


“China is now preparing some weapons,” Ms. Cheng said. China’s Commerce Ministry “is quite busy now, I’m sure.”
...

Quote
“Their objective will be to parry what Trump does with targeted reprisals in areas of U.S. vulnerability.”

Among China’s likely targets, say trade experts: Boeing Co. aircraft and U.S. farm exports from Midwestern Republican states. Canceled Boeing orders would hurt U.S. shareholders, labor unions and the U.S. trade deficit, prompting pressure on the new administration, said Derek Scissors, an economist at data provider China Beige Book International. As of last month, China is awaiting delivery of 292 Boeing jets.

Blocking soybean or other U.S. food exports would prompt action by Republican Senators whose constituents lack a large manufacturing base,

...

Beijing also could look to pressure U.S. multinationals such as General Motors Co., which relies on China as its largest sales market. “Some companies that already invest in China, we’re likely to push them to lobby Trump,” Ms. Cheng said.



To retaliate, China also could make use of informal trade barriers—making health claims against American food products, for example—that are highly technical and difficult to counter in the WTO but hurt U.S. exporters, some experts said.



“Even if U.S. companies move back to the U.S., it doesn’t mean manufacturing jobs will come back since U.S. companies will use automation to save money,” said Ms. Cheng

The Chinese are not going to mess around with Trump’s threats, they’re going to respond, and they’re going to respond where it hurts.  The ever Republican farmers who are already suffering low crop prices, are about to learn the lesson that willful ignorance of a candidate and an entire party is going to have a high price.  The same will hold for the white working class in those Midwestern states that ignored the racism, the threats on religion and millions of people, the suffering to millions of others they knew was coming, and instead voted for a “change”, wink wink, nudge nudge.

Before he even takes office, Trump and the GOP have nations around the world getting ready for the chaos that an uninformed electorate, manipulated by attacks from without and within on an antiquated election system, have unleashed on our entire planet.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/12/22/1613630/-China-Tells-Trump-s-Fools-Want-A-Trade-War-We-ll-Start-By-Targeting-Republican-States
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 24, 2016, 02:44:42 pm
Iranian Cargo Ship Reportedly Destroyed by Rocket Off Yemen

December 23, 2016 by Mike Schuler

(https://www.thenews.com.pk/assets/uploads/updates/2016-12-22/l_173725_060816_updates.jpg)

Photo posted by Ansar Burney Trust allegedly showing the attack on an Iranian cargo off Yemen.

Seven people are believed to have been killed in an apparent rocket attack on a Iranian cargo ship in the Red Sea off Yemen, Pakistani sources are reporting.

The Ansar Burney Trust, a human and civil rights organization in Pakistan, posted pictures of the alleged attack on its Facebook page. The organization said, citing its sources, that the Iranian-flagged cargo ship MV Jouya-8 was hit by a rocket and destroyed off Yemen.

All seven missing are reportedly Pakistani nationals. One person is believed to have survived.

“Ansar Burney Trust International has received information through its sources that an unfortunate ship namely “MV JOUYA-8” has been hit by a rocket in Sea of Yemen and reportedly destroyed… so far one Pakistani has managed to survive some how who has managed to swim towards some island,” Ansar Burney said in a statement posted to its Facebook page.

The Pakistani news agency Geo News said the attack occurred Wednesday night as the ship was underway from Egypt to Dubai.

According to AIS information the MV Jouya-8 was built in 1990 and is 58-meters in length and 699 dwt.

The alleged attack comes after several attacks on both civilian and military ships off Yemen in recent months.

gCaptain has been unable to independently verify the details of this week’s attack.
https://gcaptain.com/iranian-cargo-ship-reportedly-destroyed-in-rocket-attack-off-yemen-reports/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 28, 2016, 08:45:06 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

November 21, 2016
Wilkerson: If Trump Moves U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem, War Against Iran Could Come Next

Col. Lawrence Wilkerson and Paul Jay discuss Trump's foreign policy team and whether it's a continuation of policy under former vice president Dick Cheney


https://youtu.be/1l3sOyGal7o

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17763

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-241216151049.png&hash=78206393ea158485b779ed06d0fb0f84172b645d)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 29, 2016, 05:58:29 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

December 26, 2016

Israeli Journalist: The 'Real Landlords' of Israel Are the Settlers


Gideon Levy discusses how the government's preoccupation with a small colony in the occupied West Bank demonstrates the political power of the settler lobby in Israel

https://youtu.be/X0jpveAAgZU

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=18007
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 02, 2017, 11:18:59 pm
December 7, 2016

The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War, Day One: John Kiriakou

On Day 1 of the CODEPINK #IraqTribunal, participants provided testimony on the lies that were used to invade Iraq.

https://youtu.be/aw-LXWf9YCk
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 02, 2017, 11:37:37 pm
December 30, 2016

The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War, Day Two: Stacy Bannerman

On Day 2 of the CODEPINK #IraqTribunal, participants provided testimony on the lies that were used to invade Iraq.

https://youtu.be/eDb8OXqLsJ8

December 13, 2016

The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War, Day One: Janet Gerson

https://youtu.be/0RWPw_930oo
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 03, 2017, 02:05:08 pm
  January 3, 2017

The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War, Day Two: Vince Warren

 On Day 2 of the CODEPINK #IraqTribunal, participants provided testimony on the lies that were used to invade Iraq.

https://youtu.be/_y05xbJEWt4


http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=18048


December 6, 2016

The People's Tribunal on the Iraq War, Day One: Terry K. Rockefeller

 On Day 1 of the CODEPINK #IraqTribunal, participants provided testimony on the lies that were used to invade Iraq.

https://youtu.be/KMw5-CC50BI

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=17864


Cheney and neocon friends DID 9/11 so they could DO IRAQ.

The circumstantial evidence alone ( e. g. see the subsequent PROMOTION of the Naval officer in charge of the Pentagon "incompetent" response to the attacks from the exercises to the positioning of fighter jets on 911) is enough to remove any reasonable doubt that the Pentagon had EVERYTHING to do with coordinating AND EXECUTING the attacks. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-241013183046.jpeg&hash=51c9c4f17e747698c76c65c7c1814eff4f32c400)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.911sharethetruth.com%2Fimages%2Fcards%2FCR10-huge.jpg&hash=c6ae5341a0dbf142ad4bc9469f0ce04ca653f8fa)

Everything published by the U.S. Government about 9/11 so far is total BULLSHIT. And the latest U.S.  official response to the lobbied push for transparency by brave individuals like Terry K. Rockefeller is probably what is known in Intelligence circles as a "limited hang out". This is done several years after the event (the same thing was done with the JFK assassination) BECAUSE the government has been unsuccessful in bullshitting we-the-people to the point that parents are telling their kids that what they are being taught abut 9/11 in the history textbooks is not to be taken seriously, especially if any of them want to be architects, engineers or anyone that needs to study physics and materials science.

SO, the gooberment Propaganda TOOLS spin the story AGAIN with a pretense of a search for truth. The Government will NEVER officially admit Mens Rea complicity in the planning and execution of 9/11.

(https://cotocrew.files.wordpress.com/2011/09/wantedposter11.jpg)

ONLY the M.I.C. HAS ACCESS to NANO-THERMITE!

https://youtu.be/ezIU6ZxYU3A

Quote
"Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored." -- Aldous Huxley

The Gooberment ADMITTED ONE TRUTH (among many lies), in those NIST WTC 7 "studies" that the idiots who believe the government BS are so fond of quoting; I.E. they DID NOT LOOK FOR nano (or any other kind of) Thermite.

If you have feet of clay, and you don't want to ADMIT you have feet of clay, the only thing to do is to not look for clay. It's the only logical way for the murdering liars who did this state sponsored terrorism to cover their ass. IOW, the dog ate their lunch. Nothing to see, move along.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pxleyes.com%2Fimages%2Fcontests%2Fmisleading%2520names%2Ffullsize%2Fmisleading%2520names_4afcf5ea8af41.jpg&hash=061dd07760b4baad7e302d0777fc94a2fee61b41)

Limited Hang Out DEFINITION:

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Quote

A limited hangout or partial hangout is, according to former special assistant to the Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency Victor Marchetti, "spy jargon for a favorite and frequently used gimmick of the clandestine professionals. When their veil of secrecy is shredded and they can no longer rely on a phony cover story to misinform the public, they resort to admitting—sometimes even volunteering—some of the truth while still managing to withhold the key and damaging facts in the case. The public, however, is usually so intrigued by the new information that it never thinks to pursue the matter further."[1][2]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limited_hangout)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 04, 2017, 06:47:22 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Cheney, the REAL 911 mastermind, proceded to cash in on that false flag "Pearl Harbor" by invading Iraq, no matter what even the military said!  :o  >:(

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

https://youtu.be/pdJl4buyoUA

Iraq War a War Crime - Pushed by Cheney Over Objections of Joint Chiefs

John Kiriakou on RAI(7/10)

Published on May 7, 2015

On Reality Asserts Itself, former CIA official Mr. Kiriakou says that VP Cheney chaired a morning phone call where the Joint Chiefs and CIA openly argued against the invasion of Iraq - a decision made in the summer of 2002.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 05, 2017, 08:10:06 pm
January 5, 2017

Moving US Embassy to Jerusalem Would Be a Dangerous Provocation

The Trump administration might make a historic break with US policy and draw international outrage by following through on its rhetoric, warns New Internationalism director Phyllis Bennis

https://youtu.be/Kk68p1dAB_c

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=18069
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 06, 2017, 06:09:31 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)


In Syria, Western Media  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-241013183046.jpeg&hash=51c9c4f17e747698c76c65c7c1814eff4f32c400) Cheer Al Qaeda  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fpirates5B15D_th.gif&hash=32438e1ed2c4d1823d4ed2a193286525c840a605)

Thursday, 05 January 2017 11:05

SNIPPET:

I’m still haunted by what I saw at Al-Razi Hospital in what was then government-held West Aleppo. I watched as one ambulance after another dropped off civilians wounded by rebel mortars fired into residential neighborhoods around the clock. Medical staff quickly went to work on a man whose chest was pierced by a piece of twisted metal. A frantic woman lingered close by, shouting, “He’s the only son I have left!” The man was soon pronounced dead and the woman collapsed in agony.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ffair.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F01%2FSyriaBoy.jpg&hash=0d7f6958e4bc3e807bf1ae183cc5c661181875d2)
A boy mourns outside the morgue in West Aleppo after his father was killed by rebel mortars. (photo: Rania Khalek)

Down a crowded hall, 10-year-old Fateh stood on a blood-smeared floor, crying beside a gurney where his 15-year-old brother, Mohammad, was lying. Blood had soaked through the bandage on his leg, but the medical staff was too busy with more life-threatening injuries to take notice. The boys were lucky to be alive. They had been moving furniture out of the house with their younger cousins earlier in the day when they were struck by rebel mortars. Their 6-year-old cousin, a girl, was in the ICU. Their 4-year-old cousin, a boy, had been killed.

Across the street, grieving families waited outside the morgue to identify the bodies of their recently deceased loved ones. A group of sobbing children explained to me how they had watched their father die that morning from the balcony of their apartment. A rebel mortar struck him as he was parking his car. Meanwhile, a shell-shocked father told me his 10-year-old son was shot and killed by a sniper while fetching water on the roof.

A grief-stricken woman, mourning the loss of her husband, cursed the government for not hitting the rebels—or “terrorists,” in her words—hard enough. Her family members agreed, complaining that the Syrian government was being too soft on the armed groups that they blamed for destroying their city.

Underneath all the grief and calls for revenge was exhaustion. After five years of war, these people were tired. I didn’t meet a single Syrian in the government areas I visited who hadn’t lost friends and family since the war started. But their suffering, with a few minor exceptions, has been largely disappeared from Western media, probably because the people most responsible for it are supported by the West.

Even those who expressed disapproval of Russia’s involvement in their country told me they hold the US and its regional allies—Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey—most responsible for the disintegration of their country.


These sentiments totally contradict one of US media’s most pernicious lies—that US inaction allowed the bloodshed in Syria to continue with impunity.


“Many thousands of people have been killed in Aleppo…but Washington shrugs,” lamented the New York Times (12/14/16). “The United States’ inaction in Syria has transformed our country into nothing other than a bystander to the greatest atrocity of our time,” complained Leon Wieseltier in the Washington Post (12/15/16).

But Washington has intervened (FAIR.org, 10/1/15)—and by doing so, it prolonged the bloodshed and empowered Al Qaeda.


Full DETAILED article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)


http://www.therealnews.com/t2/component/content/article/3011

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Sine Qua Non Plutocratic Ruling Principle: "The people must always be provided with an enemy".
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2017, 08:09:54 pm
Originally POSTED Sep 11, 2012:
This being 9/11, I've decided to let the Diners in on some knowledge I have as a former air traffic controller that convinced me it was an inside job within a day or so of the event. The tip-off for me was the Pentagon.

I aired this knowledge on the Huffington Post years later (I think it was in 2005) when she finally couldn't censor comments on it because an article was written on the subject by some movie star or writer (AFTER Arianna had denied Jesse Ventura the freedom to write on 9/11 at hufpo). An army of Hasbara **** were out in force (you could tell they were A. not Americans by their writing and B. They had all these cartoon character avatars). I took one of them apart piece by piece and he ended up asking me where I lived. 

I got a little more aggressive in my comments and, of course, they were censored.

So what do I know? Washington D.C. is wall to wall radar AND is a prohibited area. That means you fly in and out of Reagan International on a VERY specific route along the Potomac (River route). The "excuse" that the Tracon (tower radar approach control) was  "out of communication" with the "outside world" was the most outlandish piece of bullshit I have ever heard. Remember, THAT was the reason given for them not communicating with the Air Force to scramble jets (in this case jets were ALREADY in the air being sent to the wrong areas). 

Potomac Tracon (terminal radar approach control) controls the approach of all aircraft coming into Reagan International and several other area major airports. Potomac Tracon is 33 miles west southwest of Reagan and the Pentagon. There is no way in God's good Earth that ANY lack of communications occurred between them and Reagan Tower. There are about SIX levels of redundancy in communications from several transmitters on dedicated frequencies, back up transmitters and receivers on each frequency to fiber optic land lines that provide voice and remote radar data from the overlaying artcc (enroute radar traffic control center 10,000 feet and above) to satellite feed backups for everything. There are multiple lines to various Air Force Bases around with INDEPENDENT systems for a fail safe operation in case of nuclear missile attack.

Washington Center was tracking the aircraft headed for the DC area. The false generated targets from NORAD exercises is total bullshit because NORAD doesn't work airplanes! Air traffic controllers work airplanes! And we know damned good and well what a computer generated false target looks like. I trained people and ran the target generator scenarios myself as a training department instructor during the late 70s. Now they've got LCD displays and then we had CRT (cathode ray tube) round scopes but the radar and computer operation to translate a primary (no transponder to give altitude data) target to a data bock with speed and direction has not changed. I could NOT, as an instructor generating targets to make my students sweat, generate those targets onto an active display. All training targets have a "T" on the data block anyway. NO ONE in atc was confused due to "exercises".

About the 9/11 post, back in 2012

I was just reading the Surly1 post and decided to reply as an extemporaneous thing. I had no plans to do so. I went round and round with my brother controllers (all retired) after 9/11 and they shoved their heads straight into the sand as quickly as possible but they KNEW! Like you say, EVERYBODY KNOWS. Well, they knew and just didn't want to talk about it. I told you before one of them was CIA from Vietnam (flew for Air America). That shithead posted a big flashy photo display of how "they"(Ay-rabs) attacked America. It was very professionally done. Said a "friend of his" prepared it. Uh uh...  This same guy that appeared to be "mourning" was inordinately bubbly and said in an e-mail how he probably had run into Mohammad Atta at the flight school near Fort Myers, Florida he frequented. The flight school is at an airport that was one of the ones the CIA used during the IRAN-Contra caper run by Oliver North to fly drugs into the USA and weapons out to the contras. Chucky ended up giving me the finger because I asked him too many pointed questions.  :icon_mrgreen:

Chucky was famous for using FAA telephone lines to run query software at night (while he was home) to check every bulletin board and CompuServe fax outlet looking for freebee programs to download on the tax payer dime. The weasel would then claim they were "his" software! Him and his stupid TRS-80 Radio Shack piece of crapola. :laughing6:

The day after he transferred out we reformatted the hard drive to kill all his spy software on the IBM PC with windows 3 (I believe). What a slippery thief that guy was. But I digress. 9/11 has a very sick inertia because a very large group of otherwise decent people just doing their job are forced to keep quiet about a huge crime. Later on, if they decide they want to talk, they fear doing so because they will have to admit that they kept quite about it for several years. The top dogs know this and know they can DO IT AGAIN because everyone that remained mum the first time is now an accessory.  Mafia tactics by our fascist gooberment. :(


Back to 9/11
, the twin towers had been hit and every atc facility and their mothers knew that aircraft had hit (at the management level within minutes - less than 15). At the controller level, you can be sure the people in Washington Center were told by controllers from Boston center and New York center that some hijackings were in progress BEFORE the planes hit the towers. Next you have this primary target (no transponder to give altitude data - just some moving object that provides a radar return above 50 mph) headed towards the DC prohibited area. Immediately Washington Center tells Potomac Tracon who, in turn, tells Reagan Tower. This must be done because no altitude info is available so you don't know who's airspace this NORDO (NO RADIO) potential hijack is going to violate in the capital.

But here's the kicker. We HAD TO routinely save two weeks of radar tracking data with a 100% accurate record of air traffic movements in case a loss of separation standards had occurred (known in atc parlance as a "deal" that you could get disciplined and possibly fired for). Controllers don't report "deals" unless they can't avoid it unless it was a near mid-air collision, the pilots saw each other and are screaming bloody murder. Again, the guy/gal on position normally is not being monitored by a sup so they cross their fingers. The pilots land and call the facility or wait a few days to do it. Sometimes they don't bother. If they do, your  sup tells the training department to pull the voice tapes (also saved for two weeks) and the radar data to see if you went below minimum separation standards. You, the controller, are required to write up a statement summarizing the events. The controller knows his goose is cooked here so he doesn't dare lie.

When the "aircraft" that hit the pentagon performed it's impossible maneuver of a descending 360 degree spiraling turn at around 500 mph the tower radar recorded the track and the speed, Potomac Tracon recorded the track and the  speed and Washington center recorded the track and the speed.

The paltry visuals the Pentagon released of a MISSLE striking the pentagon was blatantly obvious to me. I'm very experienced in seeing planes fly near buildings; they move MUCH slower than that. It was a missile. All they had to do in ATC was look at those radar tracking tapes.

A missile has 1,000 mph or greater velocity. The thing that hit the Pentagon was moving a lot faster than 500 mph. It's on the radar data. If the RADAR TRACKING  data from THREE INDEPENDENT ATC FACILITIES was destroyed, that is undeniable proof that Donald Rumsfeld and Cheney ran an inside job, PERIOD.  Guess what? When I mentioned the radar data on hufpo the Hasbara dude asked where I lived.

But there is more. A B767 is, as you know, is an airplane  ;D. Airplanes have a limitation in flight. The turning radius is a function of the bank angle and speed.

That means that the faster you go, the steeper you need to bank the airplane in order to keep your turn radius, as in a 500 mph jet, from being several miles in radius (if you are turning 360 degrees as was the case on 9/11).

Missles are not airplanes and don't have this problem because they use vectored thrust, not bank angle, to control turning radius.

The 360 degree banked turn the alleged B767 executed in a descending spiral to smack the Pentagon was NOT possible for a B767 at that speed due to the stresses the required bank angle would have on the aircraft (look ma, no wings!).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Favstop.com%2Fac%2Fflighttrainghandbook%2Fimage54p.jpg&hash=52968eb336be219f3efd8fb965236fa01c03f5a0)
More bank angle equals more wing loading. At 60 degrees the pilot feels two G forces and the wings weigh twice as much  as in level flight.

In any aircraft from a piper cub to a B747, when you exceed 60 degrees of banked turn, you are pulling 2 Gs plus on the entire aircraft structure. Above 60 degrees, the Gs increase exponentially. Aerobatic aircraft require plus or minus 6 G strength for FAA certification.

Commercial jet liners lose their wings (B767 max allowed plus 2.5 Gs and minus 1.0 G to avoid structural damage) trying to keep a 70 or 80 degree bank angle at 500 mph in a descending spiral needed to cover the track the government says was traversed to smack the Pentagon.

Only a missile or a fighter aircraft with a missile ready to fire could do that.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53)

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Impossible G forces for a B767

As a matter of fact you COULD beef up the wings of a B767  DRONE to do this maneuver (the only possible scenario in the second twin tower strike due to speed and turn rate). However, at the Pentagon, the hole was too small. It was a missile.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 15, 2017, 04:50:58 pm
https://youtu.be/hhH1KsMyDT4

JFK, Obama, and the Unspeakable

Published on Jul 26, 2015

Religion professor James Douglass tells why Jack Kennedy was killed -- the Bay of Pigs, the fight with the US steel industry, the Cuban missile crisis, and, especially, Kennedy's secret correspondence with the supreme enemy, Russian Premier Khrushchev, about their mutual desire to avoid nuclear disaster by ending the Cold War.

Douglass contends that the same forces within the US government that killed Kennedy are present still, and that their removal of JFK gives strong warning against initiating a non-war economy and a foreign policy based on cooperation and peace.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 23, 2017, 08:32:32 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-230117172434.jpeg&hash=f6a5f0c75dd5f4e3147d4da23ced0dac928aff0f)

Iraqis are furious over Trump's claim that America will 'maybe' get another chance to take their oil 

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F4.bp.blogspot.com%2F_IPZX1n_gnIM%2FTBxKST8wgBI%2FAAAAAAAAFxM%2F52D2UaemhQE%2Fs400%2FGas-Oil-Petroleum385.jpg&hash=733743a5d6af9b5085d12db935373e34c5e356fd)

By Hunter   

Monday Jan 23, 2017 ·  5:17 PM EST

SNIPPET:

Quote
“There’s no way Trump could take the oil unless he launched a new military front and it be a new world war,” said Kareem Kashekh, a photographer who works for the Popular Mobilization Units, a new branch of Iraq’s armed forces consisting of former militiamen and volunteers fighting against ISIS.

“He cannot do it. He cannot succeed,” said Dawoud Ali, a 30-year-old Baghdad resident and a member of Ansar al-Aghida, one of the Shiite militias fighting against ISIS. “Of course I would fight the Americans if they came for the oil.”

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/23/1624184/-Iraqis-are-furious-over-Trump-s-claim-that-America-will-maybe-get-another-chance-to-take-their-oil (http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/23/1624184/-Iraqis-are-furious-over-Trump-s-claim-that-America-will-maybe-get-another-chance-to-take-their-oil)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 24, 2017, 05:01:56 pm
Quote
“We as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values… when machines and computers, profit motives and property rights, are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” -- Martin Luther King, Jr. April 4, 1967

"maladjusted" Martin Luther King Jr.

https://youtu.be/zXEIYpnlxbw

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 26, 2017, 06:08:35 pm
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fdl10.glitter-graphics.net%2Fpub%2F2491%2F2491210ovie015m90.gif&hash=c2edc7e32994c57779427e0df75cabac786a12bf)

Vermonters of good will are VERY ANGRY at Trump's latest RACIST empathy deficit disordered action.


Trump ready to close door on refugees bound for Rutland
Jan. 25, 2017, 6:33 pm by Adam Federman and Jasper Craven

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Vermont Refugee Resettlement Program Director Amila Merdzanovic, left, and Stacie Blake, director of government and community relations at the U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants, speak at a meeting in Rutland. File photo by Elizabeth Hewitt/VTDigger


SNIPPET:

For members of Rutland Welcomes — a group that has organized to support Syrian refugee resettlement — the news of the president’s order was devastating.

“We’re really disappointed,” said Hunter Berryhill, a spokesperson for the group. Berryhill described the suspension of the program as “unjust, inhumane, shortsighted and heartless.”

Trump derives his power to unilaterally freeze immigration for broad blocs of people from section 212(f) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952. That law allows the president to curtail immigration of certain groups on various grounds, including national security and terrorism concerns.

https://vtdigger.org/2017/01/25/trump-ready-to-close-door-on-refugees-bound-for-rutland/


EXCELLENT COMMENT by Rob Williams!


Quote
Rob Williams

The one word solution to this federal/imperial overreach? NULLIFICATION.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) The Vermont legislature can declare the Trump administration’s executive order to be “null and void” within the borders of our Green Mountains, and bring the Syrian refugees here as we have been planning to do for months.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

Both constitutional and historical precedent are on our side  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039) – see Vermont’s 1858 nullification of the Fugitive Slave Act as one example.

I hope our elected legislators will have the foresight and courage to consider this option.

Free Vermont, and long live the UNtied States!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)

Agelbert NOTE: Please, spare me any babbling about Federal Law "pre-emption"  and a Republican Supine Supreme Court. In the case of Executive Orders, State Rights CAN override them LEGALLY (NO, the Civil War WAS NOT about State's Rights!). 


Here's another powerfully truthful comment:
Quote
Patty Smith

The military industrial complex dictates US foreign policy for profit. US foreign policy creates terrorists through regime change and illegal covert activities. Then US immigration policy bans victims of US aggression from seeking asylum. It’s no wonder the US is considered the greatest threat to world peace.

Yet the American people continue to be blind to the connection between our “strong military” and global instability.

Both major parties are to blame and so are the majority of the American people who continue to march blindly to the drumbeat of war.


Sadly, the bigots also commented with their typical doubletalk and closet racist comments disguised as, "We gotta take care of our own first" crocodile tears. Selfish, racist people always use duplicity to disguise their lack of compassion for fellow humans and other life forms in the biosphere. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)

I will post just one of these comments, which was countered by a Vermonter of good will.

Quote
michael olcott 

a good person doesnt take food from their own to feed their neighbor when both are starving. im so glad that all who feel as you do and Mayor Chris Louras have managed to eliminate the homeless and all other poverty related issues down there,oh wait we need to take care of our own people first before we bring others that would consume our resources. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)


Richard M Roderick  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F19.gif&hash=3f9f2fc2285bc756137e21463bc2a4c420b15ac3)

I don’t think resources are being diverted. The United States, Vermont and Rutland have the ability to take care of the number of refugees that are coming and take care of our own citizens. It often just lacks the political will. We are a country of immigrants. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 26, 2017, 07:19:42 pm
Keith Olbermann thinks Trump is nuts. I think Trump is a megalomaniac, but I don't think he is off his rocker. That said, I agree with Olbermann that Trump's actions lately certainly have not been rational. The video aside, it has been fascinating since the election to watch the right wingers try to imagine Trump's actions as "reflecting a reasoned approach." (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_2932.gif&hash=0eaec4791a5825821998245e7fcd7744b56557fe) The straw grasping attempts by the right wingers to give legitimacy to that POS POTUS are pathetic. But I'm sure the "greed is good" crowd will keep trying celebrate their megalomaniac leader.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fbudo.gif&hash=677248a20d98332a6b04ab5797696b4b96cbed38)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F245.gif&hash=67462ab647fbd65cb336e77c93c2601e477da0a9)

A Plea to Trump Fans: This Man Is Dangerous (http://video.gq.com/watch/the-closer-with-keith-olbermann-a-plea-to-trump-fans-this-man-is-dangerous)

 
Quote
Welcome to the Resistance, practical guide to what we all can do now for America

Should We Give Trump a Chance? (http://video.gq.com/watch/should-we-give-trump-a-chance)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 27, 2017, 04:26:20 pm
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Doomsday Clock Now Two and a Half Minutes to Midnight, Thanks to Trump

By Deirdre Fulton

Common Dreams  Jan. 26, 2017 06:53PM EST

The symbolic Doomsday Clock inched closer to midnight on Thursday and we have President Donald Trump largely to thank for the ominous development.

At the National Press Club in Washington, DC on Thursday morning, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists' Science and Security Board moved the hands of the iconic clock 30 seconds closer to "midnight" or the end of the world.
For the first time in the 70-year history of the clock, "the board has decided to act, in part, based on the words of a single person: Donald Trump, the new President of the United States," according to a press statement.

Quote
The nuclear danger of a Trump presidency, combined with his and his administration's climate denialism, heighten the risk of a global catastrophe, the group warned.
"As we marked the 70th anniversary of the Doomsday Clock, this year's Clock deliberations felt more urgent than usual," said Rachel Bronson, executive director and publisher of the bulletin. "In addition to the existential threats posed by nuclear weapons and climate change, new global realities emerged, as trusted sources of information came under attack, fake news was on the rise and words were used by a President-elect of the United States in cavalier and often reckless ways to address the twin threats of nuclear weapons and climate change."

A further statement from the full board noted that the development comes even as Trump had only held office for a few days.

"Just the same, words matter and President Trump has had plenty to say over the last year," it read. "Both his statements and his actions as President-elect have broken with historical precedent in unsettling ways. He has made ill-considered comments about expanding the U.S. nuclear arsenal. He has shown a troubling propensity to discount or outright reject expert advice related to international security, including the conclusions of intelligence experts. And his nominees to head the Energy Department and the Environmental Protection Agency dispute the basics of climate science. In short, even though he has just now taken office, the president's intemperate statements, lack of openness to expert advice and questionable cabinet nominations have already made a bad international security situation worse."

Agelbert NOTE: Trumplethinskin supporters will find the video in the following link to be "disrespectful" of El Presidente. Trumpers may even claim it's a "media hatchet job from clueless" people. Unfortunately for these deluded followers of Trump, it is rather difficult to associate cluelessness with the SCIENTISTS on this board. So all I can say to the Trumpers is, good luck demonizing serious scientists.

We-the-honest-people are all watching you lying propagandists wailing and moaning about "negative" news against your dear leader. Go back to your KKK headquarters and give Bannon a call and request a new "strategy". THIS STRATEGY:  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Ftissue.gif&hash=f8d05db8e11569882e0effbdd719e2b2e95c6785)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fshame.gif&hash=88b5b0c8644862ef4930e3c7e3556db6c3bf600f) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F165fs373950.gif&hash=ad797fcc08a061d3ae50ee49ccd9f3d517fb7496), now that "give Trump a chance"  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) has been exposed as total BS, is ALSO not going to help your racist, fascist cause at all.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fbudo.gif&hash=677248a20d98332a6b04ab5797696b4b96cbed38)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F2rzukw3.gif&hash=f0487b8f0d488ab1126ce5e031b11ea3d74b1cc2)

http://www.ecowatch.com/doomsday-clock-trump-2216983060.html

But then again, I'm sure you Trumplethinskin supporters will get a Fascist General or two to rally to your mendacious and duplicitous propaganda pitch. But you will not fool absolutely anyone with critical thinking skills.  ;D

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Fbe%2Fbead363502f8e7564038c7072c490cfc0da55bf30c42bb1f04983157e9ae7125.jpg&hash=d25668b2bf3b320d4d3ea2f30ed3c71741c21bbd)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 28, 2017, 04:18:54 pm
Agelbert NOTE: I wish to take this opportunity to thank El Presidente Trump for his recent amazing single handed  achievement! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fza4.gif&hash=2db0a6001703f4089cb64dc38159bb3d467e1bff) Trump is responsible for the most successful action resulting in radically improving the health of Mexicans in the last 40 years (AT LEAST!) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b) NOW you KNOW what Trump meant when he said "everyone would be covered" in his health care plan!

Of course, uh, he may not see it that way  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85), especially when his corporate friends lose their profit arse in Latin America.   ;D

God works in mysterious ways. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F129fs238648.gif&hash=bbf8ad9cbaff9e7d3097c40c21a931e6649a237f) God can even get Trump to do some good!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)
I invite all Americans to follow the prudent healthy Mexican example of boycotting corporations that sell stuff that harms your health and/or you wallet.    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fballoons.gif&hash=a64bb5ff3e76c3e11999996c460fa02de1ee10f7)

Now for you Trumpers who may disagree with those "over excited" Mexicans, I'm sure you can drum up a Tea Party style twist to justify the Red Blooded American boycott of these corporations by just claiming they are all traitors because they "took jobs to Mexico!"... (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F301.gif&hash=0291ed4abf2d80e420d1aa00d4eb3c5dd6bbfb53)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F4fvfcja.gif&hash=34a9a570347d39a0a892bc1f376c5e8b88add6b5)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwp.unionlabel.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F04%2FChecktheLabel-1-620x802.jpg&hash=6054c0bb3fa66d390a7dafacd0e3fa220660796b)

Print up a lot of posters like the above to ALERT red blooded patriotic Americans about all those Nabisco goodies jobs that went to Mexico! And we need to start growing our own bananas and Avocados too! USA! USA! USA!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2FBanane21.gif&hash=ea8aefd6edec2a8f8e52b83aa2874cd9f97fe9ae) ;D

Oh, and never mind that Illegal immigration crossings into the US from Mexico are at a 40 YEAR LOW. Listen to Trump and K-Dog! Build that WALL! What's 15 billion dollars in extra taxpayer money when Trump is gonna provide "all those jobs", eh? Trust Trump, he'll get it outta dem Mexicans real, real soon. But, uh, for now, Americans gotta "temporarily" PAY for what El Presidente said Mexico was gonna pay for...  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)
 

Mexicans protest Trump with massive boycott of U.S. companies Walmart, McDonalds, Coke, Starbucks...   

By Leslie Salzillo   

Saturday Jan 28, 2017 ·  1:19 AM EST


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2017/1/27/1626276/-Mexicans-begin-boycotts-American-companies-in-protest-of-Donald-Trump

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Flooksmiley.gif&hash=2fa679c2bf50092b12a1301928cb338275c3ba54)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 28, 2017, 10:38:40 pm
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-28/soon-there-could-be-only-49-states-america (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-28/soon-there-could-be-only-49-states-america)
Soon There Could Be Only 49 States In America
Jan 28, 2017
Submitted by Carey Wedler via TheAntiMedia.org, (http://theantimedia.org/49-states-america-california-succession/)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2Fuser3303%2Fimageroot%2F2017%2F01%2F23%2F20170128_calexit.jpg&hash=5972ce699549287169b701a78ff60abcb3af1960)

Activists in California have just taken an integral step that could leave America with only 49 states in the near future. Yes California, a pro-secession organization, received approval Thursday to begin collecting signatures from residents to put “Calexit” on the ballot for a 2019 special election.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.theantimedia.org%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F01%2Fstates-49-calexit-1.jpg&hash=a6202944d480d684ad70a4e57ea9168ebc9a8863)

Yes California has been working toward secession for some time (http://www.yescalifornia.org/blog?page=2), but with President Donald Trump’s election last year, their efforts gained momentum as frustrated residents questioned their willingness to bow down to a president they don’t support. According to a poll (http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-california-secession-idUSKBN1572KB) conducted by Reuters/Ipsos this month, nearly one in three supports secession — a sharp uptick from a similar survey conducted in 2014. With secession becoming a viable alternative, it’s possible that support may continue to grow.

Quote
We'll just take our avocados and legal weed and go#CalExit (https://twitter.com/hashtag/CalExit?src=hash) #CalifrEXIT (https://twitter.com/hashtag/CalifrEXIT?src=hash)
— beea ???? (@LeasLame) November 9, 2016 (https://twitter.com/LeasLame/status/796274680684363776)

The organization submitted (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-california-secession-calexit-htmlstory.html) their ballot proposal to California’s state government in November, and on Thursday, California Secretary of State Alex Padilla gave them the green light (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-california-secession-calexit-htmlstory.html) to begin collecting signatures. They need (http://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/316461-supporters-of-calexit-movement-can-begin-collecting-signatures-to) 585,407 people to sign their petition by July 25. If they succeed, the referendum will make it onto the 2018 ballot. If it passes, the state will hold a special election the following year. The Sacramento Bee reports (http://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article129047749.html):

Quote
The proposed measure would strike language from the California Constitution defining the state as ‘an inseparable part of the United States of America, and the United States Constitution is the supreme law of the land.’ If it passed, there would be a statewide special election in March 2019 to ask voters if they want California to become an independent country.”

Many Americans often joke about California leaving the union, highlighting how wildly different residents of the Golden State are from those of America’s heartland. Indeed, Yes California appears to agree.

Quote
America already hates California, and America votes on emotions,” Marcus Ruiz Evans, one of the group’s founders, told (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-coming-to-a-clipboard-near-you-1485483444-htmlstory.html) the Los Angeles Times. “I think we’d have the votes today if we held it.”
In a recent post on their website announcing their progress, they wrote (http://www.yescalifornia.org/):

Quote
“In our view, the United States of America represents so many things that conflict with Californian values, and our continued statehood means California will continue subsidizing the other states to our own detriment, and to the detriment of our children.

It’s understandable why secession has become a proposed solution considering California has long struggled with many systemic problems. As Yes California points out:

Quote
Although charity is part of our culture, when you consider that California’s infrastructure is falling apart, our public schools are ranked among the worst in the entire country, we have the highest number of homeless persons living without shelter and other basic necessities, poverty rates remain high, income inequality continues to expand, and we must often borrow money from the future to provide services for today, now is not the time for charity.

Though Yes California points out practical reasons for secession, they also argue the underlying justification for their movement from a philosophical standpoint:

Quote
However, this independence referendum is about more than California subsidizing (http://www.yescalifornia.org/what_america_costs_california) other states of this country,” they write. “It is about the right to self-determination and the concept of voluntary association, both of which are supported by constitutional and international law.

Further:
Quote
It is about California taking its place in the world, standing as an equal among nations. We believe in two fundamental truths: (1) California exerts a positive influence on the rest of the world, and (2) California could do more good as an independent country than it is able to do as just a U.S. state.”

California has the sixth largest economy (http://www.politifact.com/california/statements/2016/jul/26/kevin-de-leon/does-california-really-have-sixth-largest-economy-/) in the world, bolstered by the film industry, Silicon Valley, agriculture, and the state’s biggest cash crop (http://www.alternet.org/drugs/california-six-largest-cash-crops-marijuana-monster) — cannabis — which voters legalized in November.

While the practical and philosophical reasons for secession are compelling, it’s doubtful many residents are looking beyond President Donald Trump. California leans heavily to the left, and Democrats hold a supermajority (http://www.latimes.com/politics/essential/la-pol-ca-essential-politics-updates-democrats-nab-a-supermajority-after-1480383488-htmlstory.html) in both houses of the state legislature. California was largely responsible (http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/popular-vote-results-2016-clinton-trump-2012-2008-vs-electoral-college-california-uncounted-ballots-new-york-update-totals-final/) for Hillary Clinton’s popular vote victory.
Further, though Yes California stresses the importance of voluntary association, it’s doubtful an independent California government would ask taxpayers what programs they’d like to fund. Ultimately, though California as a country would certainly be beneficial for decentralization and localization efforts, it would operate as a government and, as such, force Californians to participate.

Nevertheless, the movement reflects undeniable divisions within the United States, especially in the era of Donald Trump. Other states are also eyeing secession, including Texas, Washington, and Oregon.

As Anti-Media observed (http://theantimedia.org/trump-presidency-cause-secession/) shortly after the election:
Quote
People are rioting and protesting over Trump’s win throughout California (http://abc7.com/news/anti-trump-protests-form-across-state-after-election-results/1597889/) but celebrating in Alabama (http://whnt.com/2016/11/09/toomers-corner-rolled-in-celebration-of-trump-win/), and against the backdrop of an ever-encroaching federal government, it appears these differences are growing difficult to reconcile.”



http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-28/california-threatens-cut-funds-washington (http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-01-28/california-threatens-cut-funds-washington)
California Threatens To Cut Off Funds To Washington
Tyler Durden
Jan 28, 2017

With secession threats looming, the state of California is reportedly studying ways to suspend financial transfers to Washington after the Trump administration threatened to withhold federal money from sanctuary cities.

With California counties among the Top 10 who stand to lose tax-payer funding for providing sanctuary to illegal immigrants...

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2Fuser3303%2Fimageroot%2F2017%2F01%2F23%2F20170125_sanctuary_0.png&hash=9134f7b4bee722efb6fda23fb63e1967b9491e87)

KPIX5 reports that officials are looking for money that flows through Sacramento to the federal government that could be used to offset the potential loss of billions of dollars’ worth of federal funds if President Trump makes good on his threat to punish cities and states that don’t cooperate with federal agents’ requests to turn over undocumented immigrants, a senior government source in Sacramento said.

The federal funds pay for a variety of state and local programs from law enforcement to homeless shelters.

    “California could very well become an organized non-payer,” said Willie Brown, Jr, a former speaker of the state Assembly in an interview recorded Friday for KPIX 5’s Sunday morning news.

    “They could recommend non-compliance with the federal tax code.”

California is among a handful of so-called “donor states,” which pay more in taxes to the federal Treasury than they receive in government funding.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.zerohedge.com%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fimages%2Fuser3303%2Fimageroot%2F2017%2F01%2F23%2F20170128_donor.jpg&hash=edc3220595703825210cfc27646f362240370da0)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 29, 2017, 09:37:48 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Over the centuries, as the leaders in human civilization increasingly pursued privilege over principle, this rampant increase in elite human iniquity resulted in massive, unjust and totally unnecessary human inequity.

I present this article to readers in order to educate them on how we have been propagandized to believe Capitalism is "good" because it "creates wealth". This flawed world view is analyzed and exposed as folly. The key is the flawed assumptions about WHY poverty exists, WHY wealth exists and WHAT THE RELATIONSHIP between the two IS.

SNIPPET:

Quote
We noted this in the article we published here a few weeks ago, "4 Things You Probably Know About Poverty that Bill and Melinda Gates Don’t," and it rubbed many people the wrong way. It’s understandable that this feels counterintuitive at first because it seems to defy basic logic. Wealth is something, and poverty is nothing. Wealth is the outcome of action, so it must follow that poverty is what exists before or in the absence of action. In other words, poverty must be a default state. Right?

The problem with this intuitive theory of poverty is that it ignores context—from the quality of education, to race and gender privilege, to physical and mental health, to luck and coincidence and much more. Even more important than all that, though, is the fact that it pretends that what happened yesterday has no bearing on today. When it comes to the global economic system and issues of mass poverty, the all-important yesterday is measured in decades and centuries. If we don’t understand this long view, we don’t really understand anything.

Why is all this so important? Because it is impossible to solve an entrenched problem like mass poverty without understanding how it came into being. There’s every reason to believe we can overcome poverty, if we take the time to understand and learn the lessons from how it is created.

Here are just three ways mass poverty has been created.



3 Ways Humans Create Poverty

Poverty isn't just a fact of nature. We made it happen, and we can fix it.

https://www.fastcoexist.com/3043284/3-ways-humans-create-poverty (https://www.fastcoexist.com/3043284/3-ways-humans-create-poverty)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 29, 2017, 11:32:07 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg.com%2Fimg-566ee3d4%2Fturbine%2Fbal-donald-trumps-fascist-inclinations-do-not-bother-his-fans-20151214&hash=63072a772614b696dd8a9353902eaf6840248940)

The President of the United States Explicitly Endorses Torture — a Crime Against Humanity

Alex Emmons

January 27 2017, 5:12 p.m.

Even George W. Bush called torture abhorrent.

“Freedom from torture is an inalienable human right, and we are committed to building a world where human rights are respected and protected by the rule of law,” he wrote on the UN International Day in Support of Victims of Torture in 2004.

Bush’s words were outrageously insincere and hypocritical, considering that his administration brutally tortured hundreds of captives in the war on terror, referring to it euphemistically as “enhanced interrogation.”

But in his first week as president, Donald Trump won’t stop telling the world that he approves of torture, thumbing his nose at a basic international norm of legality and decency.

What is entirely unprecedented is his willingness to use the word “torture” — a crime by definition — while openly defending it.

Trump conceded on Friday that he will defer to his defense secretary, retired Gen. James Mattis, who holds a contrary opinion. But in doing so, he reiterated his personal support for torture.

Mattis “has stated publicly that he does not necessarily believe in torture or waterboarding or however you want to define it — enhanced interrogation I guess would be a word that a lot of — words that a lot of people would like to use,” Trump said at a joint press conference with U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May. “I don’t necessarily agree, but I would tell you that he will override because I’m giving him that power.”

Trump continued: “I happen to feel that it does work. I’ve been open about that for a long period of time. But I am going with our leaders. And we’re going to — we’re going to win with or without, but I do disagree.”

Trump told ABC News Wednesday that he asked “people at the highest levels of intelligence” whether torture works. “I asked them the question, “Does it work? Does torture work,” said Trump. “And the answer was, “Yes, absolutely.”

Multiple federal laws establish “torture” as a punishable crime. The 1996 War Crimes Act punishes any “grave breach” of the Geneva conventions, including “torture.” The 1994 U.S. anti-torture statute says that someone who “commits or attempts to commit torture” can be punished by a 20-year prison sentence. And the UN Convention Against Torture, which the U.S. ratified in 1994, says “no exceptional circumstances whatsoever … may be invoked as a justification of torture.” The charter for the International Criminal Court calls it a “crime against humanity” when conducted on civilians, and a “war crime” in the context of war.

Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney went to outrageous lengths to deny that what they practiced amounted to torture. In one widely-discredited memo, for example, the Bush Justice Department argued that in order to constitute torture, pain inflicted on captives had to rise “to the level of death, organ failure, or the permanent impairment of a significant body function” — a standard that they argued allowed for keeping detainees naked in near-freezing temperatures, handcuffing them in an uncomfortable standing position for up to 40 hours; prolonged sleep deprivation; and waterboarding — an iconic form of torture since the Spanish Inquisition.

President Reagan — sanctified by today’s Republicans — signed and advocated for the UN Convention Against Torture. In his letter to Congress urging its ratification, Reagan described “torture” as “an abhorrent practice unfortunately still prevalent in the world today.”

Trump has said that he will defer to Mattis. But on Wednesday the New York Times and Washington Post published a draft executive order that would pave the way for reopening the CIA’s secret prisons, or “black sites.” The draft order was widely interpreted as a precursor to possibly restarting torture, and senators from both parties condemned it.

Trump’s statements are certainly having one effect: They hurt the global effort to combat torture, which relies on international pressure from credible nations. Leaders from monarchies, dictatorships, and human rights violators will quickly realize they can practice torture without drawing condemnation from the leader of the free world.

https://theintercept.com/2017/01/27/the-president-of-the-united-states-explicitly-endorses-torture-a-crime-against-humanity/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 30, 2017, 08:16:47 pm

Suspect in Quebec mosque terror attack was of Moroccan origin, reports show
Published January 30, 2017


"  .... One of two gunmen who shouted 'Allahu akbar!' as they opened fire at a mosque in Quebec City was of Moroccan origin."

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/30/at-least-five-killed-in-shooting-at-quebec-city-mosque.html (http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/30/at-least-five-killed-in-shooting-at-quebec-city-mosque.html)

I was surprised by the suspects being Muslim.  I know the different sects have wars with one another in the middle East. This is the first I've heard of Muslim on Muslim mass violence in North America.

Of course, a suspect is simply that -- a suspect.   I just find this strange.

I don't believe for a second that the Quebec shooting was anything but a right wing attack spurred by Trump's Crusade against Muslims. It is expected that certain elements in the media will try to flip this into a demonization of Muslims. The Quebec terrorism is only the beginning of the massive racist right wing hate crimes that Trump and his evil supporters have unleashed.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.trbimg.com%2Fimg-566ee3d4%2Fturbine%2Fbal-donald-trumps-fascist-inclinations-do-not-bother-his-fans-20151214&hash=63072a772614b696dd8a9353902eaf6840248940)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 31, 2017, 05:28:03 pm
Quote
Suspect in Quebec mosque terror attack was of Moroccan origin, reports show
Published January 30, 2017


"  .... One of two gunmen who shouted 'Allahu akbar!' as they opened fire at a mosque in Quebec City was of Moroccan origin."

http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/30/at-least-five-killed-in-shooting-at-quebec-city-mosque.html (http://www.foxnews.com/world/2017/01/30/at-least-five-killed-in-shooting-at-quebec-city-mosque.html)

I was surprised by the suspects being Muslim.  I know the different sects have wars with one another in the middle East. This is the first I've heard of Muslim on Muslim mass violence in North America.

Of course, a suspect is simply that -- a suspect.   I just find this strange.

I don't believe for a second that the Quebec shooting was anything but a right wing attack spurred by Trump's Crusade against Muslims. It is expected that certain elements in the media will try to flip this into a demonization of Muslims. The Quebec terrorism is only the beginning of the massive racist right wing hate crimes that Trump and his evil supporters have unleashed.

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Agelbert NOTE:
I was RIGHT! President Trump, Fox News AND ALL TRUMP supporters have BLOOD on their hands! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

By Walter Einenkel   

Monday Jan 30, 2017 ·  3:40 PM EST


FOX News (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4) quickly reports on Moroccan Muslim 'suspect' in Mosque shooting (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-TzWpwHzCvCI%2FT_sBEnhCCpI%2FAAAAAAAAME8%2FIsLpuU8HYxc%2Fs1600%2Fnooo-way-smiley.gif&hash=b8545bd420b1e2f2c7b9f665d2093523e4ad2251) — it was a white nationalist   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120716190938.png&hash=01feab1c7345a4e98764e0f9d24b2d69171b93c2)
 

SNIPPET:

When a suspect or suspects were originally being reported as having been captured by Canadian police, Fox News quickly went to work doing what they do best—lying and being hateful.

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/1/30/1627553/-FOX-News-quickly-reports-on-Moroccan-Muslim-suspect-in-Mosque-shooting-it-was-a-white-nationalist
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 31, 2017, 08:04:22 pm
Saudi Warship Attacked in Red Sea Off Yemen

January 30, 2017 by Reuters 

ReutersSANAA, Jan 30 (Reuters) – Houthi militants attacked a Saudi warship with three boats off the western coast of Yemen on Monday, causing an explosion that killed two crew members and injured three others, Saudi state news agency SPA reported.

“A Saudi frigate on patrol west of Hodeidah port came under attack from three suicide boats belonging to the Houthi militias,” the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen said in a statement on SPA.

One of the boats collided with the rear of the vessel, causing an explosion and a fire that killed two crew members, the statement said, without specifying their nationality.

Three others were injured and in a stable condition. The fire was put out by crew.

The Iran-allied Houthi group that controls Yemen’s capital claimed responsibility for the attack, the third carried out on ships off the coast of Yemen in the last six months.

“The Saudi warship was involved in aggression against western coastal cities and Yemeni fishermen,” a military official was quoted as saying by the Saba Yemeni news agency, run by the dominant Houthi movement.

Earlier on Monday, a building in southern Saudi Arabia used by United Nations staff to monitor ceasefire violations in Yemen was damaged by cross-border rocket fire.

The Saudi-led coalition said the attack on the ship was a serious development that “would impact international navigation and the flow of humanitarian assistance to the port for Yemeni citizens.”

In October, a U.S. Navy guided missile destroyer was targeted in a failed missile attack from Yemen.

Former President Barack Obama launched cruise missile strikes on coastal radar sites in response in Washington’s first direct military action against suspected Houthi-controlled targets in Yemen’s conflict.

In another incident in October, a Saudi-led force rescued passengers from a vessel being used by the United Arab Emirates military that was attacked by Houthi fighters in a strategic Red Sea shipping lane, the Bab al-Mandab strait.

More than 3.4 million barrels of oil passed through the 20 km (12 mile)-wide Bab al-Mandab each day in 2013, the U.S. Energy Information Administration says.

Saudi Arabia and its Gulf Arab allies have carried out thousands of bombing raids in Yemen since March 2015 in a campaign to try to restore the ousted internationally recognized government of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi. (Reporting by Mohammed Ghobari and Ali Abdelaty; Writing by Tom Finn; Editing by Tom Heneghan)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

http://gcaptain.com/saudi-warship-attacked-in-red-sea-off-yemen/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 31, 2017, 08:17:39 pm
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Russia in Biggest Arctic Military Push Since Soviet Fall

January 30, 2017 by Reuters

By Andrew Osborn

MURMANSK, Russia, Jan 30 (Reuters) – The nuclear icebreaker Lenin, the pride and joy of the Soviet Union’s Arctic great game, lies at perpetual anchor in the frigid water here. A relic of the Cold War, it is now a museum.

But nearly three decades after the Lenin was taken out of service to be turned into a visitor attraction, Russia is again on the march in the Arctic and building new nuclear icebreakers.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-310117200837.jpeg&hash=89057be5ff65f6b385bbcdf39610d90d0debce10)
File photo: Pinkfloyd88/CC BY-SA 3.0

It is part of a push to firm Moscow’s hand in the High North as it vies for dominance with traditional rivals Canada, the United States, and Norway as well as newcomer China.

Interviews with officials and military analysts and reviews of government documents show Russia’s build-up is the biggest since the 1991 Soviet fall and will, in some areas, give Moscow more military capabilities than the Soviet Union once had.

The expansion has far-reaching financial and geopolitical ramifications. The Arctic is estimated to hold more hydrocarbon reserves than Saudi Arabia and Moscow is putting down a serious military marker.

“History is repeating itself,” Vladimir Blinov, a guide on board the icebreaker Lenin, which is named after communist revolutionary Vladimir Lenin, told a recent tour group.

“Back then (in the 1950s) it was the height of the Cold War and the United States was leading in some areas. But we beat the Americans and built the world’s first nuclear ship (the Lenin). The situation today is similar.”

Under President Vladimir Putin, Moscow is rushing to re-open abandoned Soviet military, air and radar bases on remote Arctic islands and to build new ones, as it pushes ahead with a claim to almost half a million square miles of the Arctic.

It regularly releases pictures of its troops training in white fatigues, wielding assault rifles as they zip along on sleighs pulled by reindeer.

The Arctic, the U.S. Geological Survey estimates, holds oil and gas reserves equivalent to 412 billion barrels of oil, about 22 percent of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.

Low oil prices and Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s actions in Ukraine mean new offshore Arctic projects have for now been mothballed, but the Kremlin is playing a longer game.

It is building three nuclear icebreakers, including the world’s largest, to bolster its fleet of around 40 breakers, six of which are nuclear. No other country has a nuclear breaker fleet, used to clear channels for military and civilian ships.

Russia’s Northern Fleet, based near Murmansk in the Kola Bay’s icy waters, is also due to get its own icebreaker, its first, and two ice-capable corvettes armed with cruise missiles.

“Under (Soviet leader Mikhail) Gorbachev and (Russian President Boris) Yeltsin, our Arctic border areas were stripped bare,” said Professor Pavel Makarevich, a member of the Russian Geographical Society. “Now they are being restored.”

‘AGGRESSIVE STEPS’

The build-up, which echoes moves in Crimea and Kaliningrad, has been noticed in Washington. U.S. Defense Secretary James Mattis told his confirmation hearing this month it was “not to our advantage to leave any part of the world” to others.

Mattis, in a separate written submission, described Moscow’s Arctic moves as “aggressive steps” and pledged to prioritise developing a U.S. strategy, according to Senator Dan Sullivan.

That poses a potential dilemma for President Donald Trump, who wants to repair U.S.-Russia ties and team up with Moscow in Syria rather than get sucked into an Arctic arms race.

The build-up is causing jitters elsewhere. Some 300 U.S. Marines landed in Norway this month for a six-month deployment, the first time since World War Two that foreign troops have been allowed to be stationed there.

And with memories of Russia’s 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea still fresh, NATO is watching closely. Six of its members held an exercise in the region in 2015.

The Soviet military packed more firepower in the Arctic, but it was set up to wage nuclear war with the United States not conventional warfare. Arctic islands were staging posts for long-range bombers to fly to America.

But in an era when a slow-motion battle for the Arctic’s energy reserves is unfolding, Russia is creating a permanent and nimble conventional military presence with different and sometimes superior capabilities.

Sergei Shoigu, the defence minister, is presiding over the re-opening or creation of six military facilities, some of which will be ready by the year’s end.

They include an island base on Alexandra Land to house 150 troops able to survive autonomously for 18 months. Called the Arctic Trefoil, officials have said they may deploy military jets there. MiG-31 fighters, designed to shoot down long-range bombers, or the SU-34, a frontline bomber, are seen as suitable.

Moscow’s biggest Arctic base, dubbed “Northern Shamrock”, is meanwhile taking shape on the remote Kotelny Island, some 2,700 miles east of Moscow. It will be manned by 250 personnel and equipped with air defence missiles.

Soviet-era radar stations and airstrips on four other Arctic islands are being overhauled and new ground-to-air missile and anti-ship missile systems have been moved into the region.

Russia is also spending big to winterise military hardware.

“The modernisation of Arctic forces and of Arctic military infrastructure is taking place at an unprecedented pace not seen even in Soviet times,” Mikhail Barabanov, editor-in-chief of Moscow Defense Brief, told Reuters.

He said two special Arctic brigades had been set up, something the USSR never had, and that there were plans to form a third as well as special Arctic coastal defence divisions.

“Russia’s military activity in the Arctic is a bit provocative,” said Barabanov. “It could trigger an arms race.”

‘FRIENDLY PEOPLE’

In Murmansk, home to Russia’s icebreakers and just an hour from the Northern Fleet’s headquarters, the prospect of an Arctic renaissance is a source of pride.

The city is steeped in Arctic and military history. The conning tower of the Kursk submarine, which sunk in 2000 after an explosion, looks down from a hill above the port.

And in central Murmansk, scale models of dozens of icebreakers crowd the halls of the Murmansk Shipping Company, while sailors, wrapped in great coats, barrel along its streets.

“These Arctic bases are on our territory. Unlike some other countries we are not building them overseas,” said Denis Moiseev, a member of the Russian Geographical Society.

“Other countries are also very active in trying to push their borders towards the North Pole. Our army must be able to operate on all our territory in extreme conditions.”

One country regularly mentioned as an unlikely Arctic rival is China, a close Moscow ally, which has observer status on the Arctic Council, the main forum for coordinating cooperation in the region, and is starting to build its own icebreakers.

Politicians are keener to discuss a commercial Arctic push.

New roads and a railway are being built and ports overhauled as Moscow expands its freight capacity and, amid warmer climate cycles, readies for more traffic along its Arctic coast.

It hopes the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Murmansk to the Bering Strait near Alaska, could become a mini Suez Canal, cutting sea transport times from Asia to Europe.

But while the route’s popularity inside Russia is growing, relatively high transit costs and unpredictable ice coverage means it has lost some of its lustre for foreign firms.

Grigory Stratiy, deputy governor of the Murmansk Region, told Reuters there was strong interest in sea route from Asian nations however and that new icebreakers would allow for year-round navigation in the 2020s.

“Whatever the weather, the Northern Sea Route will be needed. Its use will definitely grow,” said Stratiy, who said Russia was keen to attract foreign investment to the Arctic.

When asked about his country’s military build-up, he smiled.

“There’s no reason to be afraid I can reassure you,” he said, saying it was driven only by a need to modernise.

“Russia has never had any aggressive aims and won’t have them. We are very friendly people.” (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.desismileys.com%2Fsmileys%2Fdesismileys_0293.gif&hash=b1af4868ed8f18c30e637f8cbcb79002f6f71039)


(Editing by Janet McBride)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

http://gcaptain.com/russia-biggest-arctic-military-push-since-soviet-fall/

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 12, 2017, 12:00:13 pm
https://youtu.be/wfGx-028K_U

Iran 'On Notice': Will Trump Pull The Trigger?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-310714182509.png&hash=7a8191a3d5ff15c51ad36a342a0cd50a90b956bd)
 

RonPaulLibertyReport

Streamed live on Feb 2, 2017

President Trump's National Security Advisor, Gen. Michael Flynn, interrupted the White House press briefing yesterday to deliver a statement that the US is putting Iran "on notice" after what he claimed were "destabilizing" acts by the Iranian government. Was he right? What will the US do?

https://youtu.be/L0yWdA8rhDY

What Donald Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4) Does Not Want You To Know About Iran
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 12, 2017, 12:28:44 pm
https://youtu.be/zPce0aflXUY
The Real Truth On Donald Trump That Everyone Needs To Realize NOW!!!

91,125 views

Published on Jan 30, 2017

In this video, we go over some very uncomfortable facts about the latest foreign policy decisions that will have disastrous effects on not only the U.S but the world. No, we are not talking about the travel ban, but the core root of this issue that needs to be stopped immediatly and has been carried out for the last 16 years. If you want more news like this dont forget to share this video and suport it on
 http://wearechange.org/donate/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 16, 2017, 06:13:00 pm
https://youtu.be/DH_87xFpEvI

Netanyahu Laughs At Trump's Peace Plan
 

The Young Turks   

Published on Feb 15, 2017

Netanyahu couldn’t believe how clueless Trump is. Cenk Uygur and John Iadarola, hosts of The Young Turks, discuss. Tell us what you think in the comment section below. http://tytnetwork.com/go

"President Donald Trump on Wednesday dropped a U.S. commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, a longstanding bedrock of Middle East policy, even as he urged Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to curb settlement construction.

In the first face-to-face meeting between the two leaders since Trump’s victory in the 2016 election, the Republican president backed away from a U.S. embrace of the eventual creation of a Palestinian state, upending a position taken by successive administrations and the international community.

"I'm looking at two states and one state, and I like the one both parties like," Trump told a joint news conference with Netanyahu. "I can live with either one."

Trump vowed to work toward a peace deal between Israel and Palestinians but said it would require compromise on both sides, leaving it up to the parties themselves ultimately to reach the terms of any agreement.

But he offered no new prescription for achieving an accord that has eluded so many of his predecessors, and Palestinian anger over his abandonment of their goal of statehood could scrap any chance of coaxing them back to the negotiating table.

Dropping a bombshell on Netanyahu as they faced reporters just before sitting down for talks, Trump told him: “I'd like to see you pull back on settlements for a little bit.”

The right-wing Israeli leader, who may have expected more decidedly pro-Israel rhetoric as the two sought to get past years of feuding with Trump's Democratic predecessor Barack Obama, appeared startled.”*

Read more here: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa...

Hosts: Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola
Cast: Cenk Uygur, John Iadarola

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2017, 05:28:03 pm

Quote
Meanwhile, in private, the non-crazy members of the U.S. foreign policy establishment aren’t confused at all. They understand quite well that Islamist terrorism is almost wholly blowback from the foreign policy they’ve designed.

Why Do So Many Americans Fear Muslims? Decades of Denial (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgen152.gif&hash=d5b10968fe56c4cb95fae17cee3cb420a5f4e2da) About America’s Role in the World.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fvignette3.wikia.nocookie.net%2Fr2d%2Fimages%2F9%2F94%2FWhy-Do-You-Hate-Us.jpg%2Frevision%2Flatest%3Fcb%3D20150213041301&hash=1f2d3e3f1464abc0ee8046f61907bdf17d672daf)

Jon Schwarz

February 18 2017, 9:11 a.m.

SNIPPET:

There’s been lots of attention-grabbing opposition to Trump’s “Muslim ban” executive order, from demonstrations to court orders. But polls make it clear public opinion is much more mixed. Standard phone polls show small majorities opposed, while web and automated polls find small majorities continue to support it.

What surprises me about the poll results isn’t that lots of Americans like the ban — but that so many Americans don’t. Regular people have lives to lead and can’t investigate complicated issues in detail. Instead they usually take their cues from leaders they trust. And given what politicians across the U.S. political spectrum say about terrorism, Trump’s executive order makes perfect sense. There are literally no national-level American politicians telling a story that would help ordinary people understand why Trump’s goals are both horrendously counterproductive and morally vile.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120716190938.png&hash=01feab1c7345a4e98764e0f9d24b2d69171b93c2)


Think of it this way:

On February 13, 1991 during the first Gulf War, the U.S. dropped two laser-guided bombs on the Amiriyah public air raid shelter in Baghdad. More than 400 Iraqi civilians were incinerated or boiled alive. For years afterward visitors to a memorial there would meet a woman with eight children who had died during the bombing; she was living in the ruined shelter because she could not bear to be anywhere else.

Now, imagine that immediately after the bombing Saddam Hussein had delivered a speech on Iraqi TV in which he plaintively asked “Why do they hate us?”   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)
without ever mentioning the fact that Iraq was occupying Kuwait. And even Saddam’s political opponents would only mumble that “this is a complicated issue.” And most Iraqis had no idea that their country had invaded Kuwait, and that there were extensive United Nation resolutions and speeches by George H.W. Bush explaining the U.S.-led coalition’s rationale for attacking Iraq in response. And that the few Iraqis who suggested there might be some kind of relationship between Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait and the Amiriyah bombing were shouted down by politicians saying these Iraq-hating radicals obviously believed that America’s slaughter of 400 people was justified.

If that had happened, we’d immediately recognize that Iraqi political culture was completely insane, and that it would cause them to behave in dangerously nutty ways. But that’s exactly what U.S. political culture is like.


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https://theintercept.com/2017/02/18/why-do-so-many-americans-fear-muslims-decades-of-denial-about-americas-role-in-the-world/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 28, 2017, 04:29:41 pm
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Wary of Trump Unpredictability, China Ramps Up Naval Abilities

February 27, 2017 by Reuters

FILE PHOTO: China's Liaoning aircraft carrier with accompanying fleet conducts a drill in an area of South China Sea, in this undated photo taken December, 2016. REUTERS/Stringer/File photo (at article link)

ReutersBy Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina

BEIJING, Feb 26 (Reuters) – The PLA Navy is likely to secure significant new funding in China’s upcoming defense budget as Beijing seeks to check U.S. dominance of the high seas and step up its own projection of power around the globe.

China’s navy has been taking an increasingly prominent role in recent months, with a rising star admiral taking command, its first aircraft carrier sailing around self-ruled Taiwan and new Chinese warships popping up in far-flung places.

Now, with President Donald Trump promising a U.S. shipbuilding spree and unnerving Beijing with his unpredictable approach on hot button issues including Taiwan and the South and East China Seas, China is pushing to narrow the gap with the U.S. Navy.

“It’s opportunity in crisis,” said a Beijing-based Asian diplomat, of China’s recent naval moves. “China fears Trump will turn on them eventually as he’s so unpredictable and it’s getting ready.”

Beijing does not give a breakdown for how much it spends on the navy, and the overall official defense spending figures it gives – 954.35 billion yuan ($139 billion) for 2016 – likely understates its investment, according to diplomats.

China unveils the defense budget for this year at next month’s annual meeting of parliament, a closely watched figure around the region and in Washington, for clues to China’s intentions.

China surprised last year with its lowest increase in six years, 7.6 percent, the first single-digit rise since 2010, following a nearly unbroken two-decade run of double-digit jumps.

“Certainly, the PLA Navy has really been the beneficiary of a lot of this new spending in the past 15 years,” said Richard Bitzinger, Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Military Transformations Programme at the S.Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore.

“We don’t how much they spend on the navy, but simply extrapolating from the quantity and the quality of things that are coming out of their shipyards, it’s pretty amazing.”

RAPID DEVELOPMENT

The Chinese navy, once generally limited to coastal operations, has developed rapidly under President Xi Jinping’s ambitious military modernisation.

It commissioned 18 ships in 2016, including missile destroyers, corvettes and guided missile frigates, according to state media.

Barely a week goes by without an announcement of some new piece of equipment, including an electronic reconnaissance ship put into service in January.

Still, the PLA Navy significantly lags the United States, which operates 10 aircraft carriers to China’s one, the Soviet-era Liaoning.

Xu Guangyu, a retired major general in the People’s Liberation Army now senior adviser to the government-run China Arms Control and Disarmament Association, said China was keenly aware of the U.S. ability to project power at sea.

“It’s like a marathon and we’re falling behind. We need to step on the gas,” Xu said.

Trump has vowed to increase the U.S. Navy to 350 ships from the current 290 as part of “one of the “greatest military buildups in American history,” a move aides say is needed to counter China’s rise as a military power.

“We’ve known this is a 15-20 year project and every year they get closer to being a blue-water navy with global aspirations,” said a U.S. administration official, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

“What you have seen this last year and what I think you will see with the new budget is that they are moving ahead with the short-term goal of being the premier naval force in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, with the mid-term goal, of extending all the way to the Indian Ocean.”

In January, China appointed new navy chief, Shen Jinlong, to lead that push.

Shen has enjoyed a meteoric rise and is close to Xi, diplomatic and leadership sources say.

“The navy has gotten very lucky with Shen,” said a Chinese official close to the military, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Now they know for certain their support goes all the way to the top.”

Recent PLA Navy missions have included visits to Gulf states, where the United States has traditionally protected sea lanes, and to the South China Sea, Indian Ocean and Western Pacific, in what the state-run website StrongChina called Shen’s “first show of force against the United States, Japan and Taiwan.”

Last month, a Chinese submarine docked at a port in Malaysia’s Sabah state, which lies on the South China Sea, only the second confirmed visit of a Chinese submarine to a foreign port, according to state media.

The submarine had come from supporting anti-piracy operations off the coast of Somalia, where China has been learning valuable lessons about overseas naval operations since 2008.

Chinese warships have also been calling at ports in Pakistan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, unnerving regional rival India.

“It’s power projection,” said a Beijing-based Western diplomat, of China’s navy. ($1 = 6.8640 Chinese yuan)

(Additional reporting by David Brunnstrom and Adrees Ali in WASHINGTON; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

(c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2017.

http://gcaptain.com/wary-trump-unpredictability-china-ramps-naval-abilities/

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 01, 2017, 05:20:39 pm
Retired Col. Larry Wilkerson: Trump’s Military Spending Plan Is ‘Disastrous’ and ‘Absurd’

Posted on Feb 28, 2017

https://youtu.be/XXnZH2PB_AA
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 01, 2017, 08:51:54 pm
Trump's Disaster Capitalism Explained

Antony Lowenstein, Guardian/Disaster Capitalism: Making a Killing Out of Catastrophe. As Donald Trump tries for a reset after a chaotic first month in office - is he laying the groundwork for disaster capitalism American-style?

https://youtu.be/ZeOgG6IIIBA

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 11, 2017, 02:39:27 pm
(https://www.afsc.org/sites/afsc.civicactions.net/files/u1752/Truthout%20logo.jpg)

(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/q49v--rMVfs/maxresdefault.jpg)
Berta Cáceres was murdered a year ago. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fimages.zaazu.com%2Fimg%2FIncredible-Hulk-animated-animation-male-smiley-emoticon-000342-large.gif&hash=db736c8c06568f1aa878171ad53d1f0301cfdff2)

Beverly Bell on Berta Cáceres: ''There Will Not Be Change as Long as US Sends Military Aid to Honduras''

Friday, March 10, 2017

SNIPPET:

If history is guide, what coverage you may see of the anniversary of Cáceres' death will acknowledge her as a human rights leader but won't discuss US complicity in her fate, and that of many others killed, attacked or jailed in Honduras for standing up for themselves and their communities.

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39793-there-will-not-be-change-as-long-as-us-sends-military-aid-to-honduras

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 01, 2017, 10:43:15 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn.ebaumsworld.com%2Fthumbs%2Fpicture%2F2367113%2F84688966.jpg&hash=70500a560c9b9cce78fad85e3673389aeaad1faa)

Will Trump Engineer a False Flag Attack to Distract From His Disastrous Policies?


https://youtu.be/MIMqY_H0XjA
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 03, 2017, 06:57:51 pm
 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcdn2.theinertia.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2017%2F03%2Fwarm.jpg&hash=ddb929d877c49358047aae0a93b2b584be1eca4a)

Noam Chomsky: 2 Ways Trump Is Pushing the Doomsday Clock to the Brink of Midnight  

The following is an transcript of a recent public interview at the University of Arizona with linguist and political commentator Noam Chomsky by Dr. David N. Gibbs.

David Gibbs: The main issue on everyone's minds is the inauguration of Donald Trump as president. The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has emphasized the extreme danger that Trump poses, due to the augmented risk of nuclear war and uncontrolled climate change. After inauguration, the Bulletin's metaphoric clock has been repositioned at two and a half minutes to midnight, with "midnight" signifying catastrophe. Do you agree with the Bulletin regarding the alleged dangers posed by the Trump presidency?

Noam Chomsky: One of the dangers is unquestionable. Of the two existential threats—the threats to the termination of the species basically and most other species—one of them, climate change, on that I think there's no basis for discussion. Trump has been very inconsistent on many things; on Twitter he's been all over the place, but some of it is very consistent. That is: Do nothing about climate change except make it worse. And he's not just speaking for himself, but for the whole Republican Party, the whole leadership. It's already had impact, it will have worse impact. We'll talk about this next week, but if there are ways out of this, it's going to be not easy.

Full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Freading.gif&hash=63e3e644b39258d4c4eedbcdaf322315b1856723)

 http://www.ecowatch.com/chomsky-trump-doomsday-clock-2342419463.html
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 09, 2017, 04:10:13 pm
In regard to Trump's missile strike in Syria:


Yeah, saw that. And all the alt-right talking heads here are apoplectic. I'm guessing Mr. Trump is gonna be a one-termer, unless nuclear armageddon makes it all moot.

Resignation, Impeachment, Coup d'Etat and Assassination are all possible alternatives to an Early Exit besides Nuclear War.

RE


Every US president has done this kind of wag the dog CRAP when their ratings got in the tank from Clinton on. Trump TOLD the Russians where he was going to strike before he did it. So of course the Russians told ... (and so on). This is a Trump scam following US Presidential "tradition", not a prelude to WWIII. Oh, and while nobody was lookin', Trumpy just tried to MODIFY his financial "blind" trust. LOL! 

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)

As to Trump's low IQ Alternative Right Racist supporters, he has as much use for them as Hitler did for the Brown shirts when he had finished using them to get to power. SUCKERS! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 11, 2017, 06:25:21 pm
Keith says it ALL.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=sGFel-fhGkw

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 13, 2017, 10:35:25 pm
TheDuran

CONFIRMED: US sharply cuts air operations in Syria fearing Russian missiles
ALEXANDER MERCOURIS
US sharply reduces air operations in Syria because of presence of Russian missiles after Moscow closes hotline.
The media is barely reporting the fact but the immediate effect of the US missiles strike on Syria’s Sharyat air base has been to reduce US air force flights over Syria as the US worries about Moscow’s reaction.

That this is so is confirmed by the New York Times which – presumably because its anti-Trump campaign overrides all other issues – has actually been doing some proper reporting about the Syrian conflict following the US missile strike.

This is all set out by New York Times in the following article, which says the following:

    The American-led task force that is battling the Islamic State has sharply reduced airstrikes against the militants in Syria as commanders assess whether Syrian government forces or their Russian allies plan to respond to the United States’ cruise missile strike on a Syrian airfield this past week, American officials said.

    The precautionary move, revealed in statistics made public by the command on Saturday, was taken as Russian officials have threatened to suspend the communication line the American and Russian militaries use to notify each other about air operations in Syria.

    So far, the Russian military does not appear to have taken any threatening actions, such as directing its battlefield radar or air defense systems to confront the Americans, or carrying out aggressive actions in the skies, United States officials said.

    But officials who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal planning said the commanders needed time to determine whether the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad, and the Russian military would treat the American cruise missile strike as a one-time operation that they would not respond to militarily. As a precaution, the Pentagon is flying patrols in Syrian skies with F-22 jets, the Air Force’s most advanced air-to-air fighter……

    Some American and other Western counterterrorism officials have said the missile strike could………make the fight against the Islamic State in Syria more difficult.

    “It seems clear that the strikes will complicate our efforts to pursue our counter-ISIS campaign in Syria,” said Matthew Olsen, a former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. “In particular, the ability to carry out U.S. airstrikes in Syria in support of the coalition against ISIS requires some degree of cooperation with Russia, which is now in serious jeopardy.”

    Other security experts said that much depended on the Trump administration’s next steps, and how the Assad government and its Russian patrons responded.

    “U.S. aircraft operating over Al-Tabqah are already ostensibly in range of the Russian S-400 system at the Humaymin Air Base, and we might see Russia deploy more air defense assets to Syria,” Jeremy Binnie, the Middle East editor of Jane’s Defense Weekly, said in an email. “But if the U.S. makes no moves to threaten Assad’s position, then they may well accept the punishment and move on.”

    William McCants, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution and the author of “The ISIS Apocalypse,” offered a similar assessment.

This is the military reality that is causing the US to give repeated assurances to the Russians that the missile strike on Sharyat air base – largely ineffective as it appears to have been – is intended as a one-off, and that in President Trump’s words: “Are we going to get involved in Syria? No.”

Whether the Russians believe this assurance is another matter.  Even if it is intended sincerely, the Russians must wonder whether the Trump administration can honour it given that by launching its missiles the Trump administration has decisively lost leverage in Washington to the regime change hardliners.

In any event what this episode shows is the huge leverage the presence of the S-400 and S-300VM Antey-2500 missiles in Syria is giving the Russians.

The Russians do not need to make threats or fire missiles at the US or do any other reckless or dangerous things to make their point and to limit US air operations in Syria.  Despite all the brave talk of Russia being under pressure in Syria, the reality is that the Russians can achieve the same result simply by turning off the telephone.  That is what they have done, and it the reason for the tough negotiations between Tillerson and the Russians in Moscow.


Good info.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) Thank you, AZ.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 15, 2017, 03:03:11 pm
Based on the recent Syria and Afghanistan bombings, one suspects the FSoA military will launch a barrage of Tomahawks at the proposed test site for the nuke.  Kim Long Dong has to be aware of that.  The most "proportional" and reserved retaliation would be to use an attack sub in his own waters to sink a carrier and a couple of battleships.  A more provocative and suicidal tactic would be to have a sub parked off the coast of CA fire off a few missiles at downtown Los Angeles.  They don't even need to be Nukes.

If Trumpty-Dumty does drop ordinance on NK, there is certain to be follow up fireworks IMHO.  This is not like bombing towel head terrorists who don't have a lot of response capability beyond IEDs.

On the upside, this could render my SS case moot.

RE


True. Another relative upside is that Japan won't have to worry about Fukushima. They can blame all that radionuclide pollution on fall out.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fen%2Femoticons%2Fn%2Fnuclear-emoticon.gif&hash=e4e4a2a7087fe69ad666bbc193626b4bf13857a8)

https://www.rt.com/news/384755-north-korea-war-possible/ (https://www.rt.com/news/384755-north-korea-war-possible/)
New Korean War may break out ‘at any moment’ – Chinese FM
14 Apr, 2017

China’s Foreign Minister warned that an armed conflict with North Korea may break out “at any moment,” urging Washington and Pyongyang to tone down their hawkish rhetoric and realize the price to pay for both sides if a new Korean War were to start.

The extraordinary warning comes amid massive US military buildup near the Korean Peninsula, with the carrier strike group ‘USS Carl Vinson’ heading towards the region. While US President Donald Trump is threatening to “take care” of the North Korean “problem,” Pyongyang says it is ready to repel any military action.

“Lately, tensions have risen with the US and the ROK [South Korea] on one side, and the DPRK [North Korea] on the other,” Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi told reporters on Friday, adding that “One has the feeling that a conflict could break out at any moment.”

He cautioned both sides that “if a war occurs, the result is a situation in which everybody loses and there can be no winner,” and that whichever side provoked a conflict “must assume the historic responsibility and pay the corresponding price.”

Earlier in the day, Wang said both Washington and Pyongyang must refrain from “provoking and threatening each other, whether in words or actions, and not let the situation get to an irreversible and unmanageable stage,” as cited by Reuters.

In an apparent attempt to cool down the US administration’s bellicose rhetoric, he added: “Force cannot solve the problem – dialogue can be the only channel to resolving the problem.”

China, North Korea’s close ally and main trading partner, does not welcome Pyongyang's nuclear program, but advocates finding political solution to the crisis. For its part, Russia, which also shares a land border with the reclusive state, expressed deep concern over the mounting tensions on the Korean Peninsula.

The tension on the Korean Peninsula was one of the topics Wang Yi discussed with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov in a Friday phone call.

Moscow stands for “politico-diplomatic reconciliation” and urges all parties to show patience and refrain from “any actions which might mean making provocative steps,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

From 1950 to 1953, the US fought against North Korea’s troops in the Korean War. After the US-led coalition forces crossed the 38th parallel dividing the two Koreas, China deployed troops and entered the war, while the USSR rendered military and logistical support to their socialist allies. The conflict, which quickly became a war of attrition, claimed the lives of over 33,000 American and 400,000 North Korean soldiers.

According to some media reports, the ongoing US military buildup close to North Korean waters may go far beyond an ordinary show of force. On Thursday, American intelligence officials told NBC that the US has sent two destroyers capable of launching Tomahawk cruise missiles in the region, with one just 300 miles (some 480 km) from the North Korean nuclear test site.

American long-range bombers have also been positioned in Guam to hit North Korean targets. In turn, North Korea warned on Tuesday it would retaliate to any sign of American aggression with all means available.

“If the US dares opt for a military action, crying out for ‘pre-emptive attack’, [Pyongyang] is ready to react. We will hold the US wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions,” North Korea’s deputy foreign minister said in an interview with AP.

“The US introduces into the Korean Peninsula, the world's biggest hotspot, huge nuclear strategic assets, seriously threatening peace and security of the peninsula and pushing the situation there to the brink of a war,” the North’s General Staff said in a statement carried by KCNA.

So what now? Kim Young Fatty is freaking out, I'm sure. But if the US goads him into a war, or just flat starts one for no reason other than to prevent missile test launches, I look for North Korea to  own Japan in a week. Or be a smoking ruin from nukes.

What now?  ???

There will be an Old Trump Fatty freaking out pretty soon as well.


(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/25/43/64/2543640e164a46afe11fee7d7043bb7b.jpg)
That incompetent greedball (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fp8.gif&hash=34db9228a959b3b83fc65b38a1aa92a40d56f976)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F126fs2277341.gif&hash=1a8375f11d76a653bcb48e30eaa7b652175f029d) will fold under the pressure.

The "Wag the Dog" game Trumpy is trying to play will eat him alive.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200317173810.png&hash=e0014c983c1e07f5fb22f33087bbd952dfa654b2)

Expect "SEVEN DAYS IN MAY" when Old Fat Trumpy loses it.    8)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 18, 2017, 12:50:40 pm
(https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-TmnNOjlJKmk/V-pgQ0gW6kI/AAAAAAAAEiY/XfajBEPDn84exnlOyR3alX-8iqTE85gdQCLcB/s640/_83668915_027121769-2.jpg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.netanimations.net%2FFrankenstein-looks-stares-and-blinks-animated-gif.gif&hash=3bd58f87bb01b4a3726043248531c3d5ef6a0530) North Korea says ready to react to 'any mode of war' from US  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fen%2Femoticons%2Fn%2Fnuclear-emoticon.gif&hash=e4e4a2a7087fe69ad666bbc193626b4bf13857a8)

Posted 18 Apr 2017 02:11
 Updated 18 Apr 2017 08:07

UNITED NATIONS: North Korea is preparing for "any mode of war" triggered by US military action, Pyongyang's envoy to the United Nations warned on Monday (Apr 17), saying his country would respond to a missile or nuclear strike "in kind."

The statement from North Korea's deputy ambassador to the United Nations, Kim In Ryong, followed warnings from US Vice President Mike Pence to Pyongyang not to test US resolve.

"If the United States dares opt for a military action (...) the DPRK is ready to react to any mode of war desired by the Americans," Kim told a news conference at UN headquarters in New York. "We will take the toughest counteraction against the provocateurs," he said.

North Korea has taken "self-defensive" measures in response to US threats of military action and these reflect Pyongyang's determination to "counter nukes and ICBM in kind," Kim said, referring to intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Pence earlier told a news conference in South Korea that "the era of strategic patience is over" after North Korea on Sunday test-fired another missile and fears mounted that it may be preparing a sixth nuclear test.

Pyongyang is seeking to develop a long-range missile capable of hitting the US mainland with a nuclear warhead, and has so far staged five nuclear tests, two of them last year.

Kim also confirmed that a new nuclear test was under preparation, saying that the plans had been announced and that "it will take place."

"As far as nuclear test is concerned, it was already announced to the public. It is something that our headquarters decided. At a time and at the place where our headquarters deem necessary, it will take place," he said.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthediamondsmine.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F08%2Fgabon-posturing-crop.jpg&hash=54a1ff8b3ae9dbc0bd9e457bf13bed13584e7f27)
'GOT TO BEHAVE' (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fugly004.gif&hash=c56db4280057389afd154a1cb4057410151579c8)


US President Donald Trump's decision at the weekend to send the Carl Vinson carrier-led navy strike group to the Korean peninsula shows that the "US reckless moves for invading the DPRK have reached a serious phase," said Kim.

The North Korean deputy envoy asserted that Pyongyang would hold the United States "wholly accountable for the catastrophic consequences to be entailed by its outrageous actions."

The envoy criticised the US missile strikes that hit an air base in Syria last week, saying Washington was resorting to a "gangster-like logic" that its military action was proportionate and could apply to the Korean peninsula as well.

Trump on Monday said his message to North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was: "Got to behave."

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric separately expressed concern over rising tensions on the Korean peninsula and said the latest missile test was "troubling".

He urged North Korea to "take all the steps necessary to de-escalate the situation and return to dialogue on denuclearisation."

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will next week chair a special meeting of the UN Security Council on North Korea.

- AFP/de

http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/asiapacific/north-korea-says-ready-to-react-to-any-mode-of-war-from-us/3685330.html

 
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 19, 2017, 01:56:03 pm
No, wait!  WTF is going on?  There are not 3, not 2, not 1, but NO carriers in the Sea of Japan.  WW3 is postponed - there's an important exercise with the Australians in the Indo-Pacific to deal with first, THEN we'll get round to the naughty North Koreans.

Kim must be laughing his head off, and China-Russia, who presumably could see by satellite the USS Carl Vinson was sailing SOUTH from Singapore, must be thinking "What a bunch of amateurs !"

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/world/asia/aircraft-carrier-north-korea-carl-vinson.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2017/04/18/world/asia/aircraft-carrier-north-korea-carl-vinson.html)
Aircraft Carrier Wasn’t Sailing to Deter North Korea, as U.S. Suggested

As Charlie Pierce said apropos this:

Let us catch our breath for a minute and take stock.

These people misplaced an entire carrier attack group and then tried to bluff their way past it in a way guaranteed to make a crazy guy with a bad haircut and a huge army nervous.


http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a54605/trump-aircraft-carrier-north-korea/ (http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/news/a54605/trump-aircraft-carrier-north-korea/)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.armscontrolwonk.com%2Ffiles%2F2016%2F06%2Fposture.jpg&hash=087b75bc61fb0c44ccceddd6f0279439f664dc23)
"Got To Behave" 

Like I said before, it's all about posturing. 8)  North Korea has been at this for a while. BUT Trump is a bird of exactly the same BULLSHIT feather.

More TRUMP-like posturing behavior in video below: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F4fvfcja.gif&hash=34a9a570347d39a0a892bc1f376c5e8b88add6b5)

https://youtu.be/tz0avWZoqjg

Ya know, I do believe Trump is in to Tom Clancy novels. In one of those tales, a carrier group was sent to attack Japan (the bad guys in that particular novel) while CNN continued showing reruns of THAT aircraft carrier in the group in dry dock for repairs as if they were still going on. This latest BLUFF by Trump may be something like that, but in reverse.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 20, 2017, 10:18:08 pm
Message to the POS POTUS:

(https://i.ytimg.com/vi/NLzI3NkLD2E/hqdefault.jpg)

https://youtu.be/PCcw2sPlplY
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 22, 2017, 03:57:40 pm
Will This Ship Killer Make Naval Convoys Obsolete? ???

The Tomahawk missile is famous for attacking stationary targets on land, but except for a short-lived anti-ship variant now out of service, it had not been used against mobile or floating targets. That changed dramatically two years ago when a modified Tomahawk punched a hole through a shipping container on the deck of a moving merchant ship (video below).

https://youtu.be/Jgv5ixxgTsQ

While the Tomahawk anti-ship missile can hit moving targets at sea – making them a lot smarter than their more famous cousins – they do not have the target selection and tracking intelligence you might expect to find aboard the world’s most technologically advanced 21st century warship

But that might change soon with the U.S. Navy announcement this month of a successful air-launch of the newest variant of Lockheed Martin’s Long Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) from a F/A-18E/F Super Hornet fighter plane. This follows the successful test of the surface-launched LRASM variant that was conducted aboard the USN SDTS in July of last year.

LRASM is designed to detect and destroy specific targets within groups of ships by employing advanced technologies that reduce dependence on surveillance and GPS navigation. Armed with a 1,000-pound penetrator and blast-fragmentation warhead, LRASM employs a multi-mode sensor, weapon data link and an enhanced digital anti-jam Global Positioning System to detect and destroy specific targets within a group of ships.

Basically, this stealthy missile will have enough AI on-board for highly accurate targeting and the ability to survive an enemy’s electronic countermeasures and sink a specific ship located within a convoy or busy shipping lane.

Once operational, both LRASM variants will play a significant role in ensuring military access to operate in open ocean/blue waters, owing to its enhanced ability to sink both naval and merchant ships from extended range.

http://gcaptain.com/will-ship-killer-make-naval-convoys-obsolete/

Agelbert NOTE: NOW you KNOW what REALLY hit the Pentagon on 9/11.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fpm1.narvii.com%2F5869%2F6a64193d6770c3afd17406c78686c0eda32ded1c_hq.jpg&hash=fedf26e48d67cdd1e932380c7336ac18486d3fee)

(https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/imagenes_sociopol/911_90_11.jpg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bibliotecapleyades.net%2Fothernews_911%2Frense_3-9-5_archivos%2FGrandpunchoutcut.jpg&hash=49114cb9bece17b310146de7b71a6c0865e6d416)

(https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/fc/ba/27/fcba271e838edf4fd80fbc7b0818970c.jpg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Fbe%2Fbead363502f8e7564038c7072c490cfc0da55bf30c42bb1f04983157e9ae7125.jpg&hash=d25668b2bf3b320d4d3ea2f30ed3c71741c21bbd)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 23, 2017, 02:43:09 pm
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/21/the-president-formerly-known-as-hitler/ (http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/21/the-president-formerly-known-as-hitler/)

April 21, 2017
The President Formerly Known as Hitler

by CJ Hopkins

For most of the spastic talking heads who are paid to repeat whatever some producer whispers into their earpieces around the clock while making weird faces, the footage of those turgid Tomahawk missiles rising angrily out of their silos on their way to violently penetrate the enemy and explode in shuddering spasms of global corporatist power was literally orgasmic. Pent-up editorialists instantly pumped out geysers of overwhelming approval. MSNBC’s Brian Williams lost it and started raving on camera about “the beauty of our fearsome armaments,” and quoting Leonard Cohen, and so on.
//
The global capitalist ruling classes can put up with a lot from a US president (who is the most powerful man in the world, after all), but there are a few lines one does not cross, and some fundamental responsibilities they need to know are going to get handled. Playing neo-nationalist grab-ass (or selling the world some Hope and Change crap) is all fine and good when you are out on the hustings, but as Obama noted on his way out of town, “reality has a way of asserting itself.” Or, as corporatist puppet Chuck Schumer put it,”you take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.” I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but we’re talking about the US military, CIA, NSA, and the rest of the military industrial complex. These are people who have no problem murdering entire families by day and going home and playing with their kids at night. Did anyone really think they were going to allow some word-salad-babbling billionaire to screw around with their long-term objectives because he happened to win a presidential election?


This is great stuff.


I agree the M.I.C. has never felt threatened by the latest song and dance man POTUS.

But you understand, Surly, that this latest especially POS POTUS is exposing the power that the M.I.C. has always gone out of its way to pretend it doesn't have. THAT IS, the FACT that the USA is a M.I.C. "benevolent" dictatorship dressed up in representative democracy pig lipstick. Trump's impotence is not what we-the-people are supposed to be cognizant of...

The military has no morals whatsoever, and never did. And they DO own the FASCIST place called the USA. They plan ahead and they "game" every contingency using our tax dollars in order to be ready, willing and able to instantly defend their power base, while we pretend they defend our country.

Remember when Ron Paul said that, if elected POTUS, the first thing he would do was order the US Military to return from all foreign bases? I do. I laughed. The FIRST POTUS that tries that is OUT within a month or so (if they don't just kill him with a "lone nut").

Have you heard the latest ditty that our brave soldiers are trained to march to in basic training? Here it is:

Quote
We went to the market where all the hadji shop,
pulled out our machetes and we began to chop,
We went to the playground where all the hadji play,
pulled out our machine guns and we began to spray,
We went to the mosque where all the hadji pray,
threw in a hand grenade and blew them all away.

The above is from a recent article (speech) by David Swanson. He tells it like it is.  :(

Back when I was in basic, in 1967, the ditties were far more innocent sounding (even as we were murdering 4 million people in Viet Nam).
Quote
I know a gal from Kansas city
Left, right, left right
She don't drink beer but you can suck her titty
Left, right, left right
One, two ,three, four
left right, LEFT RIGHT!
 (then repeat)

The F-35 and the Incinerating Ski Slope

By David Swanson - Posted on 22 April 2017

http://warisacrime.org/content/f-35-and-incinerating-ski-slope (http://warisacrime.org/content/f-35-and-incinerating-ski-slope)

It's sad.        (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-041115022304.png&hash=cd8cb8e28ab8f7fc78c1ea00d30a661bd937aed5)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 23, 2017, 05:29:30 pm
http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/21/the-president-formerly-known-as-hitler/ (http://www.counterpunch.org/2017/04/21/the-president-formerly-known-as-hitler/)

April 21, 2017
The President Formerly Known as Hitler

by CJ Hopkins

For most of the spastic talking heads who are paid to repeat whatever some producer whispers into their earpieces around the clock while making weird faces, the footage of those turgid Tomahawk missiles rising angrily out of their silos on their way to violently penetrate the enemy and explode in shuddering spasms of global corporatist power was literally orgasmic. Pent-up editorialists instantly pumped out geysers of overwhelming approval. MSNBC’s Brian Williams lost it and started raving on camera about “the beauty of our fearsome armaments,” and quoting Leonard Cohen, and so on.
//
The global capitalist ruling classes can put up with a lot from a US president (who is the most powerful man in the world, after all), but there are a few lines one does not cross, and some fundamental responsibilities they need to know are going to get handled. Playing neo-nationalist grab-ass (or selling the world some Hope and Change crap) is all fine and good when you are out on the hustings, but as Obama noted on his way out of town, “reality has a way of asserting itself.” Or, as corporatist puppet Chuck Schumer put it,”you take on the intelligence community — they have six ways from Sunday of getting back at you.” I don’t mean to be overly dramatic, but we’re talking about the US military, CIA, NSA, and the rest of the military industrial complex. These are people who have no problem murdering entire families by day and going home and playing with their kids at night. Did anyone really think they were going to allow some word-salad-babbling billionaire to screw around with their long-term objectives because he happened to win a presidential election?


This is great stuff.


I agree the M.I.C. has never felt threatened by the latest song and dance man POTUS.

But you understand, Surly, that this latest especially POS POTUS is exposing the power that the M.I.C. has always gone out of its way to pretend it doesn't have. THAT IS, the FACT that the USA is a M.I.C. "benevolent" dictatorship dressed up in representative democracy pig lipstick. Trump's impotence is not what we-the-people are supposed to be cognizant of...

The military has no morals whatsoever, and never did. And they DO own the FASCIST place called the USA. They plan ahead and they "game" every contingency using our tax dollars in order to be ready, willing and able to instantly defend their power base, while we pretend they defend our country.

Remember when Ron Paul said that, if elected POTUS, the first thing he would do was order the US Military to return from all foreign bases? I do. I laughed. The FIRST POTUS that tries that is OUT within a month or so (if they don't just kill him with a "lone nut").

Have you heard the latest ditty that our brave soldiers are trained to march to in basic training? Here it is:

Quote
We went to the market where all the hadji shop,
pulled out our machetes and we began to chop,
We went to the playground where all the hadji play,
pulled out our machine guns and we began to spray,
We went to the mosque where all the hadji pray,
threw in a hand grenade and blew them all away.

The above is from a recent article (speech) by David Swanson. He tells it like it is.  :(

Back when I was in basic, in 1967, the ditties were far more innocent sounding (even as we were murdering 4 million people in Viet Nam).
Quote
I know a gal from Kansas city
Left, right, left right
She don't drink beer but you can suck her titty
Left, right, left right
One, two ,three, four
left right, LEFT RIGHT!
 (then repeat)

The F-35 and the Incinerating Ski Slope

By David Swanson - Posted on 22 April 2017

http://warisacrime.org/content/f-35-and-incinerating-ski-slope (http://warisacrime.org/content/f-35-and-incinerating-ski-slope)

It's sad.        (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-041115022304.png&hash=cd8cb8e28ab8f7fc78c1ea00d30a661bd937aed5)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080814213147.png&hash=8caa9e70560c86d7f1e8f5c50cee91c97d9859f1)

Damn...I know I got brainwashed in boot camp, but we didn't have any such cadence when I was there.  I would never have sung that s h I t.  I would have quit in boot camp!

I don't know why anyone would argue with anything you said in the above quote?  I certainly would not. 


 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) Thank you Lucid. May your children grow up to be as principled as you are.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2017, 04:30:23 pm
American Imperialism Leads the World Into Dante’s Vision of Hell

Posted on Apr 24, 2017

By Paul Fitzgerald and Elizabeth Gould

Editor’s note: This article is the first part of a four-part series on Truthdig called “Universal Empire”—an examination of the current stage of the neocon takeover of American policy that began after World War II. Read Part II on Tuesday.

SNIPPET:

“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate. (Abandon all hope ye who enter here.)”—Dante, The Divine Comedy, Inferno (Part I), Canto 3, Line 9

Before the Tomahawk missiles start flying between Moscow and New York, Americans had better educate themselves fast about the forces and the people who claim that Russia covered up a Syrian government gas attack on its own people. Proof no longer seems to matter in the rush to further transform the world into Dante’s vision of Hell. Accusations made by anonymous sources, spurious sources and outright frauds have become enough. Washington’s paranoia and confusion bear an uncanny resemblance to the final days of the Third Reich, when the leadership in Berlin became completely unglued.

Tensions have been building since fall with accusations that Russian media interfered with our presidential election and is a growing threat to America’s national security. The latest WikiLeaks release strongly suggested that it was the CIA’s own contract hackers behind Hillary Clinton’s email leaks and not Russians. The U.S. has a long reputation of accusing others of things they didn’t do and planting fake news stories to back it up in order to provide a cause for war. The work of secret counterintelligence services is to misinform the public in order to shape opinion, and that’s what this is.

The current U.S. government campaign to slander Russia over anything and everything it does bears all the earmarks of a classic disinformation campaign, but this time is even crazier. Considering that Washington has put Russia, China and Iran on its anti-globalist hit list from which no one is allowed to escape, drummed-up charges against them shouldn’t come as a surprise. But accusing the Russians of undermining American democracy and interfering in an election is tantamount to an act of war, and that simply is not going to wash.

This time, the United States is not demonizing an ideological enemy (USSR) or a religious one (al-Qaida, ISIS, etc.). It’s making this latest venture into the blackest of propaganda a race war, the way the Nazis made their invasion of Russia a race war in 1941, and that is not a war the United States can justify or win.

The level and shrillness of the latest disinformation campaign has been growing for some time. But the American public has lived in a culture of fake news (formerly known as propaganda) for so long many have grown to accept fake news as real news. George Orwell saw this coming, and here it is. As a big supporter of U.S. military intervention in Cuba and an avowed practitioner of “yellow journalism,” in 1897, William Randolph Hearst admonished the illustrator he’d sent to Cuba who’d found no war to illustrate: “You furnish the pictures, and I’ll furnish the war.” Hearst eventually got his war, and America’s experiment in imperialism was off and running. 

Americans should know by now that their country’s wars are fertile ground for biased, one-sided, xenophobic, fake news, and the United States has been in a permanent state of war since 1941. Although the targets have shifted over the years, the purpose of the propaganda hasn’t. Most cultures are coerced, cajoled or simply threatened into accepting known falsehoods demonizing their enemies during wartime. But no matter how frequently repeated or cleverly told, no lie can hold if the war never ends. The legendary cold warrior, Time and Life magazines’ Henry Luce (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4), considered his personal fight against Communism to be “a declaration of private war.” He’d even asked one of his executives whether or not the idea was probably “unlawful and probably mad?” Nonetheless, despite his doubts about his own sanity, Luce allowed the CIA to use his Time/Life magazines as a cover for the agency’s operations and to provide credentials to CIA personnel.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)

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http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/american_imperialism_world_dantes_vision_of_hell_20170424
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 25, 2017, 07:48:25 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301216165623.jpeg&hash=1ccfee6aaf9d939cca294a849774cff11e462e59)

[embed=640,380]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m115jFNN2E0[/embed]

https://youtu.be/m115jFNN2E0

https://www.yahoo.com/news/entire-u-senate-white-house-north-korea-briefing-150459069.html (https://www.yahoo.com/news/entire-u-senate-white-house-north-korea-briefing-150459069.html)


Top Trump administration officials will hold a rare briefing on Wednesday at the White House for the entire U.S. Senate on the situation in North Korea, senior Senate aides said on Monday.

All 100 senators have been asked to the White House for the briefing by Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats and General Joseph Dunford, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the aides said.


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-050515144544.png&hash=7ee8a9d0ff80a564867eeb5fc64c6c942dec8dee)

While top administration officials routinely travel to Capitol Hill to address members of Congress on foreign policy and national security matters, it is unusual for the entire 100-member Senate to go to such an event at the White House, and for those four top officials to be involved.


U.S. officials have expressed mounting concern    (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fwww_MyEmoticons_com__fishing.gif&hash=bdfc21d44b32b6a3ece7b2a8ec345c781d972327)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85) over North Korea's nuclear and missile tests, and its threats to attack the United States and its Asian allies.



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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 10, 2017, 04:30:14 pm
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

May 10, 2017

Trump's Cuts to Foreign Aid Threaten Global Health, Benefit War & Disaster Profiteers

https://youtu.be/Xd26Vx6RSv4

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:19056:Trump%27s-Cuts-to-Foreign-Aid-Threaten-Global-Health%2C-Benefit-War-%26-Disaster-Profiteers

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 21, 2017, 08:31:21 pm
Gorbachev: It Was Worse Than This, and We Fixed It

 
By davidswanson - Posted on 13 May 2017

By Дэвид Суонсон  (David Swanson)

On Friday in Moscow I and a group from the United States met with former president of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev. He said the current relationship between Washington and Moscow alarmed him. But, he said, it is possible to rebuild trust. “We had a situation that was worse, but we were able to rebuild trust. And people-to-people contacts helped to rebuild trust.”

When Gorbachev and U.S. President Ronald Reagan first met, presidents of the two countries had not met for six years. Members of Reagan’s cabinet opposed the meeting. Gorbachev came out of the meeting saying of Reagan “He’s not a hawk, he’s a dinosaur.” Reagan came out denouncing Gorbachev as “a die-hard communist.”

But they kept meeting. Eventually and inevitably Reagan asked what the Soviets would do if the U.S. were attacked by a meteor or aliens. Both men said their countries would help each other. However, Reagan was a fan of Star Wars, both the weapons boondoggle and the movie — which he may have kept distinct from each other in his mind. Gorbachev and Reagan accomplished a great deal of disarmament, not to mention Gorbachev’s accomplishing the nonviolent dissolution of an empire. But they could not get rid of all the nuclear weapons, and they could not take other serious steps in that direction, because Reagan was not willing, and the U.S. government was not willing.

Just as the climate of the culture of the day, as created by activists, journalists, citizen diplomats, and hundreds of other forces, may have mattered more to the disarmament efforts’ successes than the precise words or personalities in the negotiating room, the established war interests in Washington may have determined the failures more than anything else.

“When the Soviet Union broke up,” Gorbachev said on Friday, “many in the West were rubbing their hands together. That was immoral. Our country was in a severe crisis, and it was treated as an enemy.”

On Friday, Gorbachev faulted the same forces on both sides. “We both have the military industrial complex,” he said. “They want war, but we want peace.” He then quoted U.S. President John F. Kennedy saying that the peace we need is not a “Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war.” Gorbachev recounted telling Reagan the very same thing that Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is reported as having said this week: “the era of a master-pupil relationship is long over.” Russians want peace, but they want peace among equals, not peace under somebody’s boot heel.

Gorbachev tried for peace, and had the United States fully reciprocated, it is conceivable that today weapons of war would be banned from the earth. For that effort, Gorbachev is not honored in his home country as much as around the world. And the U.S. refusal to accept peace and friendship is recognized and regretted least in the United States — greatly to our shame.

http://warisacrime.org/content/gorbachev-it-was-worse-and-we-fixed-it
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 30, 2017, 03:07:24 pm
Another Way Donald Pissed Off Germany

May 29th, 2017 by Steve Hanley

Originally published on Gas2.

Donald Trump is suffering from oral diarrhea again. On May 25, while attending a NATO function in Brussels, the braying jackass masquerading as America’s putative president told the assembled officials, “The Germans are bad, very bad. Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. We will stop this.”

(https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2017/05/Trump-Germany-1.jpg)
Image by Kürschner, art produced and displayed in Germany  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

His remarks were first reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel and some have suggested that translation issues may have been responsible for a misunderstanding. However, Der Spiegel claims a number of people heard The Donald’s intemperate remarks and interpreted them the same way. Remember, this is the same little boy in grownup clothes who handed Angela Merkel a bill for the cost of keeping American troops on German soil for the past 50 years when she visited Washington earlier this year.

This is not the first time Trump has had vacuous things to say about German carmakers. In January, he said much the same thing, complaining he sees nothing but Mercedes in Manhattan but no Cadillacs in Europe. He threatened back then to impose a 35% import duty on German cars, which spurred one German car company executive to quip that America should “build better cars.”

Trump repeated his threat to slap a high tariff on German cars again in Brussels, blissfully unaware that Volkswagen and BMW manufacture large number of cars in the US. His remarks are just another example of someone who shoots from the lip without any knowledge of the subject he is talking about. As one person commented on Jalopnik, “The working assumption now is that Donald Trump doesn’t know anything, period.”

“According to MIT’s Observatory of Economic Complexity, a visualization tool for international trade data, Germany has a $252 billion positive trade balance, with the majority of goods being cars, which make up 12 percent of all exports,” Jalopnik writes. “The top destination for German export goods, the OEC shows, is the U.S., representing 9.9 percent of all export value, or $122 billion.”

Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, says the press is blowing this all out of proportion. “He did say, ‘They’re very bad on trade,’” Cohn admits, but he claims his boss doesn’t have a problem with Germany. “He said his dad is from Germany. He said, ‘I don’t have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade.’”

But another German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, claims European officials who heard Trump’s remarks were horrified at our Dear Leader’s lack of the most basic understanding of international trade agreements. He continues to spout ignorance every time he opens his mouth and did little on his grand tour to the G7 meeting other than convince world leaders he is a dangerous lunatic who is best ignored. Sadly, America’s position on the world stage is being greatly diminished by Trump’s stupidity. Soon, the world will move on to more important things and leave America to stew in its own hyper-nationalistic juices.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/29/another-way-donald-pissed-off-germany/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 30, 2017, 11:18:43 pm
Another Way Donald Pissed Off Germany

May 29th, 2017 by Steve Hanley

Originally published on Gas2.

Donald Trump is suffering from oral diarrhea again. On May 25, while attending a NATO function in Brussels, the braying jackass masquerading as America’s putative president told the assembled officials, “The Germans are bad, very bad. Look at the millions of cars they sell in the US. We will stop this.”

(https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2017/05/Trump-Germany-1.jpg)
Image by Kürschner, art produced and displayed in Germany  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

His remarks were first reported by German newspaper Der Spiegel and some have suggested that translation issues may have been responsible for a misunderstanding. However, Der Spiegel claims a number of people heard The Donald’s intemperate remarks and interpreted them the same way. Remember, this is the same little boy in grownup clothes who handed Angela Merkel a bill for the cost of keeping American troops on German soil for the past 50 years when she visited Washington earlier this year.

This is not the first time Trump has had vacuous things to say about German carmakers. In January, he said much the same thing, complaining he sees nothing but Mercedes in Manhattan but no Cadillacs in Europe. He threatened back then to impose a 35% import duty on German cars, which spurred one German car company executive to quip that America should “build better cars.”

Trump repeated his threat to slap a high tariff on German cars again in Brussels, blissfully unaware that Volkswagen and BMW manufacture large number of cars in the US. His remarks are just another example of someone who shoots from the lip without any knowledge of the subject he is talking about. As one person commented on Jalopnik, “The working assumption now is that Donald Trump doesn’t know anything, period.”

“According to MIT’s Observatory of Economic Complexity, a visualization tool for international trade data, Germany has a $252 billion positive trade balance, with the majority of goods being cars, which make up 12 percent of all exports,” Jalopnik writes. “The top destination for German export goods, the OEC shows, is the U.S., representing 9.9 percent of all export value, or $122 billion.”

Trump’s director of the National Economic Council, Gary Cohn, says the press is blowing this all out of proportion. “He did say, ‘They’re very bad on trade,’” Cohn admits, but he claims his boss doesn’t have a problem with Germany. “He said his dad is from Germany. He said, ‘I don’t have a problem with Germany, I have a problem with German trade.’”

But another German newspaper, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, claims European officials who heard Trump’s remarks were horrified at our Dear Leader’s lack of the most basic understanding of international trade agreements. He continues to spout ignorance every time he opens his mouth and did little on his grand tour to the G7 meeting other than convince world leaders he is a dangerous lunatic who is best ignored. Sadly, America’s position on the world stage is being greatly diminished by Trump’s stupidity. Soon, the world will move on to more important things and leave America to stew in its own hyper-nationalistic juices.

https://cleantechnica.com/2017/05/29/another-way-donald-pissed-off-germany/


Good Point.

What could trump have meant?  Is he not a free-trade capitalist?  Was the trade deal between US and Germany not negotiated and sign off by both sides?  Is no one allowed to export more than they import otherwise the US will impose tariffs to even things up?


Trump is a  liar. He is also a bully. Scratch a bully and you find a coward. His mission was to offend those that threaten polluter interests in the USA (and Russia). Do you think that shove Trumpy gave the Montenegro guy was extemporaneous? Montenegro is on  the Paruski poop list right now. Trumpy is just showing his loyalty to the mafia that owns him. And as for Germany, they have managed to really make the polluters in the USA lose a lot of money with the popularity and growth of Energiewende.

Trumpy "wrote" a book some years ago about negotiation. Part of his approach is, of course, intimidation. But he isn't stupid enough to not check out who he is going to intimidate before he puts on the performance of being a loose cannon with no holds barred. That's all show business for the rubes. When the doors are closed, he says he wants this and that and he will make life real hard for the other party if they don't go along to get along.

At that point in the negotiation, the other party gets huffy and Trumpy puts on the charm to "compromise" with what he was expecting to accomplish from the start.

HOWEVER, when he has NO INTENTION of negotiating anything at all, and is, instead, on a mission to denigrate some party that is giving those that own him some heartburn, he just plays the bull in a China shop  routine. That's what all that noise about "trade" with Germany was about.

All that works in the corrupt world of business oligarchs. However, diplomacy is more nuanced than Trumpy can handle, IMHO.  Trumpy's big problem is that he thinks ANY publicity is "good" publicity, like show ratings. In politics, people have longer memories and loyalties of diplomats are not always a function of how much bribes they get. So Trumpy really messed up in carrying water for polluters. That will help bring him down  HERE due to a cascade of complex diplomatic back channel loyalties  people HERE have with Europe.

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Germans are not a people to be trifled with. They have a lot more influence in the USA than Trump and his Wrecking Crew can afford to ignore or deliberately offend. They will enthusiastically help sabotage everything he wants to do for his fascist polluter owners. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fmaniac.gif&hash=9ecf389a7da25db958f3f63461cbb45a4b316c4e)

All that is just my opinion, which you probably totally disagree with. ;D  But so far, Trumpy is acting pretty much in the exact way I expected him to when I told Golden Oxen in November of 2016, right after the election, that Trump would be pure poison for this country.

The longer he stays, the worse things will get HERE. But perhaps that will work out to Russia's benefit. I certainly don't see a long Trump presidency doing anything but bringing utter chaos to the USA. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 31, 2017, 02:45:10 pm
Jimmy Carter Brilliantly Explains How The Establishment Gave Us Trump

https://youtu.be/XhebmG148Zo

Published on May 11, 2017

I don't know that much about Jimmy Carter, other than that he had solar hot water heaters installed on the White House roof and that Raygun had them removed.  He's spot on with his analysis of Dump and how he got into office.  Although I honestly still don't believe that they count votes.  Not that it matters with the Corporatocracies lobbyists doing their evil work. 

After watching the above video I watched another from the same dude.  In it Jimmy Carter stated that he never fired a bullet, missile, or dropped a bomb while in office.  He never did any violence anywhere is the boast.  If that's true its amazing.  Here was a president, who managed to not get assassinated, and was a proponent for non-interventionism, non-violence, and renewable energy.  It's a wonder to me that he made it out alive

I was a crazy Republican "supply sider" (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fgen152.gif&hash=d5b10968fe56c4cb95fae17cee3cb420a5f4e2da) back then. I was rooting for Reagan and had no love for Carter. It was well over a decade later that I began to connect the dots on how I had been brainwashed against Carter by the media. Carter made a lot of enemies in the fossil fuel fascists so they went to town to bring him down. Of course NONE of this was framed as a pollution solution versus more fossil fuel subsidy swag on behalf of profit over people and planet. BUT THAT IS EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS ALL ABOUT! Carter was framed, as Eddie mentions below, as mealy mouthed, incompetent, etc. Actually, none of that was true. In fact, Carter's competence was severely undermining the profit over planet oligarchic power base (although Carter was way too nice to the Military). Yes, inflation was through the roof, but that was not as big a deal as the Republican crooks and liars try to make it out to be. Inflation was HIGH because all those union contracts out there AND the Cost of Living Allowance math FORCED the Capitalists IN AND OUTSIDE OF GOVERNMENT to PAY their employees decent wages. ALL that changed to the massive economic attack on we-the-people by Reagan and Greenspan. During the entire Reagan/Bush onslaught, the fossil fuel industry was coddled, babied, given all sorts of extra breaks and generally welfare queened back to the prominence they had LOST during the Carter years.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-260217143301.png&hash=d9e2c205c423ed80cf612dbac84f6a589693ceea)

People talk about "Wall Street" crooked banks back then without realizing that the lion's share of the crookedness of those banks was connected to the aiding and abetting of  the fossil fuel industry fascists. But never mind that now. Let me answer you and Eddie about the heat Carter took (see after Eddie;s comment). 

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-050515144418.png&hash=de91e688b9b233d06a3fc3a61c3d0797e6b2c84b)
He took a lot of heat for not attacking Iran when they took the hostages at the US Embassy. At the time I thought he was being a wuss...but in hindsight, not so much.

The claim that Carter didn't kill anyone or engage in warlike activity is true because of accidental circumstances, not because Carter was not ready, willing and able to kill for empire. His plan to rescue the hostages in Iran failed because of engine failure on one of the aircraft going in low over the desert. They had planned something like the Son Tay raid of Vietnam days, where two of our biggest choppers accompanied by a C130 for air to air refueling went in to rescue the POWs. They got in and out okay but the POWs had been moved a day earlier (the drones we launched routinely from B52s to take pictures  of the prison only did it about once a week).
 
So Carter tried the same thing, which would have certainly resulted in a LOT of dead Iranians, but the C130 crashed in the Iranian desert somewhere and the choppers had to rescue the the downed crewmen. Carter would have won the election if that C130 had not crashed because the fire power in those flying machines was adequate for the rescue task.

The failure was seized upon by Reagan, Bush and CIA Fossil fuel fascist company to denigrate Carter. It worked. Reagan won the election. I was one of the idiots that voted for him.  :-[

The other part about Bush COMMITTING TREASON by negotiating with the Iranians in Paris, BEFORE the election, to NOT release the POWs until Reagan was inaugurated, came out over a decade later. And anybody that understands how Bush (former CIA director and always loyal to war and fossil fuel fascists) operated, SHOULD be able to put two and two together and realize that there is a near 100% probability that Bush, KNOWING of the planned hostage rescue attempt in advance, MADE SURE that C130 had "engine failure". (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-100216204839.gif&hash=19170c176bf9497627349a00623922c8e88185b1)

But for what it's worth, Carter was logical and reasonable in regard to pollution and renewable energy, BUT he pushed for, AND OBTAINED, some of the biggest budgets for the "defense" department that this country had seen up until then. For him to say he didn't shoot anybody might be technically true, but the fact that he massively increased the funding and the size of the M.I.C. means his hands are as dirty as any president who did deliberately kill for empire like Reagan (and Truman, Eisenhower, Kennedy, Nixon, Ford, Bush, Clinton, Shrub, Obama and Grumpy Trumpy).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.opednews.com%2Fpopulum%2Fuploaded%2Fwemeantwell-23439-20130307-234.jpg&hash=5d94476d7e46b55b11262b914d406946bde61c41)

Carter should keep his mouth SHUT about his contributions to "peace" while POTUS.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 09, 2017, 12:31:41 pm
NEWLY THREATENED BY TERROR, IRAN’S COLD CONFLICT WITH SAUDI ARABIA COULD ESCALATE
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-310714182509.png&hash=7a8191a3d5ff15c51ad36a342a0cd50a90b956bd)

Murtaza Hussain

June 8 2017, 1:23 p.m.

https://theintercept.com/2017/06/08/terror-iran-saudi-arabia-isis-al-qaeda-trump/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 10, 2017, 09:39:13 pm
Max Blumenthal - What’s Really Going on In Iran & Qatar? ???

https://youtu.be/au2NF5mDdd4

Jun. 7, 2017 4:52 pm

Big Picture Interview: Max Blumenthal, Senior Editor-AlterNet's Grayzone Project/ Author-The 51 Day War: Ruin and Resistance in Gaza. Iran is blaming Saudi Arabia and by proxy the United States today after ISIS killed 12 people and wounded 42 more in a brazen attack in heart of Tehran. In a statement - Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards drew a direct connection between this morning's slaughter and Donald Trump's recent trip to Saudi Arabia - and said that "the fact that the Islamic State has claimed responsibility proves that they [the Saudis] were involved in the brutal attack.” So - were they?
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 12, 2017, 11:15:10 pm
Is Trump a Traitor for the Russians?

https://youtu.be/JIL11Fsh5EA

Jun. 11, 2017

Agelbert Note: Trump is the enemy, not Russia.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 13, 2017, 03:01:12 pm
Shipping Routes via Oman Opened to Give Qatar Food Lifeline (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

June 12, 2017 by Reuters

http://gcaptain.com/shipping-routes-via-oman-opened-give-qatar-food-lifeline/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 19, 2017, 04:52:20 pm
The reason we are still in Afghanistan and other war zones...

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-050515144544.png&hash=7ee8a9d0ff80a564867eeb5fc64c6c942dec8dee)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 25, 2017, 02:06:57 pm
Agelbert NOTE: This WEAPON is very good news for the biosphere.(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.bativert.ma%2Fimages%2Fimage3.jpg&hash=7c7c27d838504cb1d5c5a4c1efac44e790a39265)   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b)


WHY? Because it means LESS physical amunition in practice or in combat that pollutes. AND, this laser will require a LOT of electricity, which means ships will habe more and more Solar power capturing technology on board, instead of diesel. Finally, at about ONE DOLLAR a shot  :o   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F128fs318181.gif&hash=eff6d5f3831782966c2ff2081f07bf7fc5b22a6b), the operation of this weapon will be very cheap.  ;D

WATCH: U.S. Navy Tests First Anti-Drone Laser Weapon

July 24, 2017 by gCaptain

Check out this story from CNN on the U.S. Navy’s first active laser weapon. The cutting-edge prototype Laser Weapon System (LaWS), developed by the Navy’s Office of Naval Research, was first deployed aboard the USS Ponce in 2014, and is operated by a video-game like controller, and can address multiple threats using a range of escalating options, from non-lethal measures such as optical “dazzling” and disabling, to lethal destruction if necessary. During live tests, the LaWS was used to hit targets mounted aboard a speeding oncoming small boat, shoot a Scan Eagle unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) out of the sky, and destroy other moving targets at sea.

https://youtu.be/9ElNjgZCDpQ

http://gcaptain.com/watch-u-s-navy-tests-first-anti-drone-laser-weapon/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 03, 2017, 08:03:04 pm
CHINA: PUTIN TOUCHES DOWN IN XIAMEN FOR 9TH BRICS SUMMIT

Date of publication: 03 09 2017, 15:11

https://youtu.be/vjf4P92cfu8

https://en.news-front.info/2017/09/03/china-putin-touches-down-in-xiamen-for-9th-brics-summit/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 12, 2017, 10:26:26 pm
How Republicans Plan To Privatize  ;)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)
Social Security!

https://youtu.be/qwR2LlrsafE

Sep. 11, 2017 5:30 pm

Thom explains the republican plan to privatize social security and how it will hurt families! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817134648.gif&hash=d24c66a26329a19150a175d576b631d10f631ee8)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 12, 2017, 10:37:11 pm
OUR MISSION: RESEARCH, COMPILE, AND DISSEMINATE SCIENTIFIC INFORMATION ABOUT THE DESTRUCTION OF ALL 3 WORLD TRADE CENTER SKYSCRAPERS

https://youtu.be/tOlz4ZTkyEU

http://www.ae911truth.org/38-home-posts/78-education.html
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 21, 2017, 11:13:44 pm
Flight Attendant sheds new light on 9/11.

https://youtu.be/7md2QzNsAe4

MrChrillemannen

Published on Sep 11, 2017

This video is based on combined segments from an interview conducted by George Noory on Coast to Coast AM with 9/11 researcher author and now retired Flight Attendant Rebekah Roth. This version of the interview is shortened and edited.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 25, 2017, 08:59:44 pm
Kim Jong-un of North Korea, NOT TRUMP, is the the Adult in the Room

https://youtu.be/RDW5Lotxci8

Thom Hartmann Sep. 22, 2017 1:56 pm

Thom reads a speech from the leader of the DPRK (Democratic People’s Republic Of North Korea) Chair Of The Workers Party Of Korea, Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un in response to the increasingly bombastic remarks from our President Donald Trump made towards North Korea. You might be surprised by what you hear.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 08, 2017, 09:48:16 pm
Agelbert NOTE: It seems that some high Cabinet officals have signed a "suicide pact" to all resign at once if Trump fires Tillerson.  :o (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fpng%2F200%2Femoticons%2Ffingerscrossed.png&hash=d56f8009d18b55f4cea7be68284c0521be92fc5d)

BREAKING NEWS TRUMP 10/5/17 REX TILLERSON, JARED KUSHNER, RUSSIA INVESTIGATION, ROBERT MUELLER 10,152 views

https://youtu.be/DsStANe-ht0

Published on Oct 5, 2017
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 01, 2017, 03:32:07 pm
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

November 1, 2017

Post 9/11 AUMF Law Gives Trump Power to Wage Perpetual War (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.creataforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817134648.gif&hash=f11b84965c85e9bb984d9bb6baeb60c9cc213e9d)

Post 9/11 authorization to use military force has been used to intervene in 19 countries. Congress ought to reclaim its authority to declare war, explains Col. Larry Wilkerson

https://youtu.be/TMZAe9MF1JM

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20330


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-050515144544.png&hash=7ee8a9d0ff80a564867eeb5fc64c6c942dec8dee)
Sine Qua Non Scumbag Elite Ruling Principle: "The people must always be provided with an enemy".

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 01, 2017, 03:54:48 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

October 31, 2017

Homegrown Terror: JFK Docs Show US (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fpirates5B15D_th.gif&hash=32438e1ed2c4d1823d4ed2a193286525c840a605) Considered Attacks at Home to Blame on Cuba


 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ncc-1776.org%2Ftle-pics%2FFlag_of_the_United_States.png&hash=dde5dffb8a9710e499636687519ddca19367732a)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Facigar.gif&hash=dc9dccf92c6c88c99611b06c86d92629d69f2978)


The new round of documents on the Kennedy assassination shed light on the long-running U.S. government effort to overthrow Fidel Castro -- including discussions to stage attacks on U.S. soil and blame Cuba
'

https://youtu.be/eRdHKn8lULk

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20337
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 01, 2017, 03:59:52 pm
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The Nuclear Dreams of President Donald Trump: Nightmares Past and Present

by Rebecca Gordon

SNIPPET:

Preventing a nuclear war between the United States and North Korea may be the most pressing challenge facing the world right now.

Our childish, ignorant, and incompetent president is shoving all of us — especially the people of Asia — ever nearer to catastrophe. While North Korea probably hasn’t yet developed the missiles to deliver a nuclear warhead to the U.S. mainland, it certainly has the capacity to reach closer targets, including South Korea and Japan.

But what can ordinary people do about it? Our fingers are far removed from the levers of power, while the tiny digits of the man occupying the “adult day care center” we call the White House hover dangerously close to what people my age used to call “the Button.” Nevertheless, I think there may still be time to put our collective foot on the brakes, beginning with the promise of a bill currently languishing in Congress.

Full article:

https://www.salon.com/2017/10/30/trumps-nuclear-dreams_partner/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 11, 2017, 06:33:01 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

November 11, 2017

Saudi's 'War on Lebanon' Backfires

After being accused of forcing him to resign, Saudi Arabia's apparent detention of Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri has boosted support for Hezbollah, says author and professor Amal Saad

https://youtu.be/BfTePOfMYfg

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20435

November 10, 2017

Richest Arabian Arms Dealer and Arrested Prince Unveiled

Prince Al-Waleed is one of Saudi Arabia's richest princes and profited enormously from Saudi arms purchases. Andrew Feinstein, the author of 'Shadow Wars,' on the legal risks of corrupt arms dealing

https://youtu.be/t54yqCZ8hB4
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 11, 2017, 07:12:12 pm
Veterans Ron Kovic, Oliver Stone on the True Cost of War (Video & Transcript)

NOV 09, 2017

https://youtu.be/GjcSxWkibAY

https://www.truthdig.com/videos/veterans-ron-kovic-and-oliver-stone-in-conversation-with-robert-scheer/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 23, 2017, 02:26:52 pm
EXCLUSIVE: WHAT TRUMP REALLY TOLD KISLYAK AFTER COMEY WAS CANNED (http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index.php/topic,785.2955.html)

The Israeli Intelligence Community states that Trump betrayed them.

Of course.

Some very smart people knew this would happen over a year ago.

(https://theuglytruth.files.wordpress.com/2016/06/trump.jpg?w=406&h=229)


Trump win greeted with worldwide trepidation
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pressdemocrat.com%2Fcsp%2Fmediapool%2Fsites%2Fdt.common.streams.StreamServer.cls%3FSTREAMOID%3DVMkAb404MkYUujKGRH4Ptc%24daE2N3K4ZzOUsqbU5sYvn%24rJeJ2YEw5H%24sV44ELEaWCsjLu883Ygn4B49Lvm9bPe2QeMKQdVeZmXF%249l%244uCZ8QDXhaHEp3rvzXRJFdy0KqPHLoMevcTLo3h8xh70Y6N_U_CryOsw6FTOdKL_jpQ-%26amp%3BCONTENTTYPE%3Dimage%2Fjpeg&hash=973a3c485fe0883bca20f00d16aec0add7786e0f)

But there is more. Are you aware of the fact that the U.S. was one of the three countries that just REFUSED to sign a U.N. Resolution condemning Nazi-ism? That was less than a week ago.

Trump is a NAZI, plain and simple. He will do ABSOLUTELY ANYTHING within his power to make Fascism GREAT again,
(https://c1cleantechnicacom-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/files/2017/05/Trump-Germany-1.jpg)






Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 28, 2017, 08:47:21 pm
Listen to what JFK said many years ago. Trump is the exact opposite. Trump is a war loving, brutal fascist dictator, period.

https://youtu.be/TMj0pRHldaw

There couldn't be a starker contrast between Kennedy and Donald Trump, we've all heard the bellicose, vulgar and less than verbose vehemence of Donald Trump, what of the courage and profile of former President John F Kennedy?

Thom Hartmann Nov. 27, 2017
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 28, 2017, 10:35:45 pm
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

 November 28, 2017

Trump Plans to Move US Embassy to Jerusalem

Max Blumenthal and Paul Jay on Mike Pence's announcement that Donald Trump is actively planning to move the US embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, going against decades of US policy

https://youtu.be/rkF-MiRTkeA

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20580

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200317173810.png&hash=e0014c983c1e07f5fb22f33087bbd952dfa654b2)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 05, 2017, 08:25:10 pm
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December 5, 2017

Trump's Jerusalem Embassy Move Was Long in the Works

President Trump will recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and move the American embassy there. Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada says years of US policy set the stage.

https://youtu.be/SlYT9P1UKlw

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20639
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 06, 2017, 09:19:19 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

December 6, 2017

Trump's 'Criminal' Jerusalem Move (https://i.imgflip.com/eghas.jpg)Could Backfire



By recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving the US embassy there, President Trump is catering to the US right-wing while risking a new revolt against his Middle East agenda, says journalist and scholar Rami Khouri

https://youtu.be/B7DsvoBmoEo

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20649
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 07, 2017, 08:51:38 pm
December 7, 2017

Unlike US Embassy, Palestinians Will Not Be Moved

As protests erupt over the US recognition of Jerusalem as Israel's capital, Dr. Mustafa Barghouti says Trump and Netanyahu won't succeed in displacing Palestinians from their homeland


https://youtu.be/3MKSMJYahJU

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20662
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 09, 2017, 10:28:12 pm
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December 9, 2017

Palestinians Resist Israel and its US Enabler

As the Israeli crackdown on protests in the Occupied Territories turns deadly, human rights attorney Noura Erakat says that Trump's decision on Jerusalem is only the latest US attack on Palestinian self-determination

transcript SNIPPET:

AARON MATÉ:   It's The Real News. I'm Aaron Maté. The uproar continues over President Trump's recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. At least one Palestinian has been killed and dozens have been wounded as Israeli forces crackdown on protests across occupied territories. Protests are also being held around the world and the UN Security Council has held an emergency session. Joining me is Noura Erakat, human rights attorney and professor at George Mason University. Welcome, Noura. As you see this response both in the territories and around the world, your thoughts today?

NOURA ERAKAT:   So, two thoughts to start off with: one is that I just want to start by expressing some sort of emotional weight that Palestinians are feeling. This is an incredibly sad moment. In addition to feeling rage and righteous rage, there's a lot of sadness and a heaviness around the fact that this announcement comes around Eid or Christmas for the Christians amongst us and really dampens the mood and the reality that we continue to live under a settler-colonial reality. What President Trump has done is to mark the inevitable consolidation of Israel settler- colonial project that is intent on the elimination of Palestinians as a people and their containment as mere Arabs, as Bedouins, as individuals, as refugees, but not as a people who are deserving of their self-determination.

Palestinians have been waging this struggle for self-determination ever since 1917 when British Empire decided that it would erase Palestinians as a people in order to make way for the establishment of a Jewish national home in their place. This was a colonial decision. It was a colonial erasure. What Netanyahu has said recently in response to Trump is that Trump's announcement about Jerusalem is the equivalent of the Balfour Declaration designating all of Palestine for Jewish settlement. We are seeing a continuity of this colonial process that continues to erase Palestinians, but we're also seeing a continuity in US foreign policy that has steadily, steadily moved forward this project by adopting a dual process of speaking out of both sides of their mouth.

The United States, especially since 1967 under the Lyndon B. Johnson administration has simultaneously told Israel and the world that there will be no resolution, unilateral resolution imposed on the solution either by way of international law or external interference, that it will be completely negotiated resolution. At the same time, the United States has enabled Israel to expand its settler colonial holdings over Palestinian lands without regard to putative borders or otherwise in the form of unequivocal diplomatic aid shielding it from any kind of international censor at the United Nations, in the form of unequivocal military aid that has made Israel the most, the 11th most significant military power in the world but also the only nuclear power in the Middle East, and in the form of financial aid that has ensured Israel will stay afloat and have a remarkably powerful economy on the global scale.

These things together have immunized Israel from any kind of external pressure. Despite the international community insisting that there must be a solution and a just solution to the Palestinian condition, it has been able to act with impunity in order to continue its settler colonial project of erasure, to usher in an era of apartheid under the double-speak of the United States which has now ended as Trump has revealed, has removed the emperor's clothes to reveal US foreign policy for what it is which is as an enabler for Israel's project.

Full transcript and video:

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20670%27%20style=%27color:#000;
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 21, 2017, 08:15:09 pm
December 21, 2017

UN Security Council Isolates the US on Jerusalem

The US had to veto the UN Security Council vote to rebuke the US for moving its embassy to Jerusalem, which would have passed 14-1. All except the US agreed that the embassy's move will make a peace agreement between Israel and Palestine more difficult. Vijay Prashad analyzes the vote

https://youtu.be/vnF1gvvysW0

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 21, 2017, 08:58:44 pm
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December 21, 2017

Will Honduras Get New Presidential Elections?

Electoral observers from the OAS are calling for new elections, but they still won't use the word "fraud." Gerardo Torres, international coordinator of the Opposition Alliance Against the Dictatorship, and Luther Castillo, former Vice Minister in the Department of Health, discuss next steps

https://youtu.be/93DRHrpcghI

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20760%27%20style=%27color:#000;
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 06, 2018, 02:05:33 pm
A photo roundup of some of last week's events, including demonstrations in Morocco and Bolivia.

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A demonstrator in La Paz gives a flower to a riot police officer during a rally against Bolivia's new healthcare policies.

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People protest in Morocco after two miners died while working in a clandestine coal mine in Jerada.

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A wounded rebel fighter arrives in Daraa after evacuating from Beit Jann, Syria.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fmritems%2FImages%2F2018%2F1%2F5%2F4d795f593d1c40f6adf41444265790a8_8.jpg&hash=120d6188bb44b8e0021b14448765aa2bbb50aa47)
Family members mourn the victims of a December 28 apartment fire in New York's Bronx neighbourhood.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fmritems%2FImages%2F2018%2F1%2F5%2F2afa2ac3469b41a8851049a3bc6cca4d_8.jpg&hash=a6dc15b5993b17a9e48ec15b0e60f70074f76319)
Children stand near a damaged site after an air strike hit the Eastern Ghouta town of Misraba in Syria.


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Members of the 'Miracle Team', a soccer team made up crutch-bearing soccer players, listen to their coach before a training session at the El Salam club on the outskirts of Cairo, Egypt.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fmritems%2FImages%2F2018%2F1%2F5%2Fc723fcca12414e12aba883ce66e13489_8.jpg&hash=c3a8e33e464a70e2b78c1307efceba20486b375c)
People celebrate the new year during a countdown event at Yongdingmen Gate in Beijing, China.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fmritems%2FImages%2F2018%2F1%2F5%2F19389af4cb9e442085f4e99959a6f1c2_8.jpg&hash=340929df497c610c834421d964a10880882f220b)
Young men in Kinshasa protest the Democratic Republic of Congo's President Joseph Kabila's refusal to step down from power.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.aljazeera.com%2Fmritems%2FImages%2F2018%2F1%2F5%2F550d4c0aeacf4c59b8ee0794b108bb9c_8.jpg&hash=221b3099afe7a12bbe15a234369c1b9139298848)
People walk between candles during the 'One Million Stars' event by Swiss humanitarian organisation Caritas as a sign of solidarity and cohesion with the poor in Bern, Switzerland.

http://www.aljazeera.com/indepth/inpictures/week-pictures-syria-strikes-drc-protests-180105143945856.html
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2018, 08:08:33 pm
It's Time To Overthrow Our Leaders Not Replace Them! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221847.gif&hash=54129e3b65760aaddc6f2d7f42b34a7d839d2f27)

https://youtu.be/adVxoTTXY-4

The rationalization of the morbidly rich use to justify their privation is falling apart and they are openly moving towards fascism, calling for monarchy, and denying actual science.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120716190938.png&hash=01feab1c7345a4e98764e0f9d24b2d69171b93c2)

Thom Hartmann Jan. 9, 2018 3:00 pm
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 18, 2018, 07:42:02 pm
David Cay Johnston: Trump Is Determined to Provoke War to Draw Focus From Racist and Erratic Behavior

Thursday, January 18, 2018

By Amy Goodman and Nermeen Shaikh, Democracy Now! | Video Interview

SNIPPET:
AMY GOODMAN: Well, David Cay Johnston, the Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter, joins us here in our studio, out this week with his new book. It's called It's Even Worse Than You Think: What the Trump Administration Is Doing to America.

Welcome to Democracy Now!, David. You have been covering Donald Trump for over 30 years. You heard what he had to say about it: Look where you are, and look where he is today. But you've also been covering President Trump through this first year. Can you talk about, as we move into the first anniversary of his inauguration, what has surprised you most, since this is a man you have known back to his early days as a developer going bankrupt in New York?

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Well, Donald hasn't, frankly, done anything that's surprised me. And I said, and there's lots of video of me saying, before the election, he would be increasingly erratic, his racism would come out, that he would try to find an excuse to use nuclear weapons, because during the campaign, he said, "I'm very good at war. I know more about ISIS than the generals. And of course we're going to use nukes." And, lo and behold, last week, the news breaks that they are loosening up the rules on the use of tactical nuclear weapons -- that is, a nuclear weapon that will take out a block, not a city -- and possibly even authorizing their use for a cyberattack. He's looking for --

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, this is amazing. I mean, just to reiterate this --

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Oh, it is.

AMY GOODMAN:  -- using nuclear weapon attack for a cyberattack.

DAVID CAY JOHNSTON: Right. And hopefully, the military will not follow an order to do this. But clearly, he is determined, if he can figure out how to do it, to provoke a war. After all, what helps strengthen your position if you're a dictator-in-waiting, which is what Donald is, but some kind of incident that will stir the public and focus people away from his crazy, racist, uninformed, ignorant behavior?

Full interview and transcript:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43264-david-cay-johnston-trump-is-determined-to-provoke-war-to-draw-focus-from-racist-erratic-behavior
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 19, 2018, 02:28:42 pm
Civil Defense Rations 50's Style
(may be useful very soon)

https://youtu.be/kUmuQc1Aa-s

2016 24 Hour MRE Review Military Food Taste Test Ready Meal A Fist Full of Generic Corn Nuts Hamfest
(May Be Even More Useful VERY SOON)


https://youtu.be/2ZjCiEjZaw0


The following POS POTUS would rather start a nuclear war that kills billions of humans and destroys most of the biosphere rather than admit he is a fascist polluter defending crook, a racist and a fake billionare (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED):
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200317173810.png&hash=e0014c983c1e07f5fb22f33087bbd952dfa654b2)

Please Remain Calm - Please Ignore The Red Key (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fwww_MyEmoticons_com__smokelots.gif&hash=094f88de6782c1cd03ed5321b387792046eb3cdd)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-251117173905.jpeg&hash=3ee1f30d42d58a5d6488780f315a4177ea456938)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 24, 2018, 07:01:19 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

January 22, 2018

Pence 🐉 Speech Fuels Conflict Between Israel and Palestine

Pence's speech to the Knesset praised Israel's democracy while Palestinian members of parliament were forcibly removed for expressing their views, says TRNN correspondent Shir Hever

https://youtu.be/6ihIhqeHJ7Q

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=20957
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 02, 2018, 07:56:45 pm
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Will Trump🦀 Start a War To Unify The Country?

https://youtu.be/BuvQShVYv9o

Donald Trump just revealed that he wants to bring the country together likely through a new major war! Will a war distract from the Nunes memo release? Will the United States face off against North Korea or Iran or both?

Thom Hartmann  Feb. 2, 2018 2:00 pm
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 05, 2018, 06:44:22 pm
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February 5, 2018

Special Report: The Never-Ending Coup in Honduras (2/2)

The Inauguration of an Unelected President (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c)

https://youtu.be/asOb7iErcAQ

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21058%27%20style=%27color:#000;
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 08, 2018, 06:26:30 pm
RootsAction Education Fund rootsaction.org

February 8, 2018

SNIPPET:

Quote
Days ago, Brandon sent along some thoughts that he’d like to share with you. “I know a lot of us look at the world today and we despair,” he wrote. “We see corporations consuming our resources at an exponential rate to sell us meaningless trinkets and distract us while our planet is dying. The leaders that we have voted into office are slaves to money and are not servants of the people that they represent. And we live our lives in relative safety built off the bloodshed and misery of those that the mainstream media would say are different than us and whom we need to fear.”

Brandon went on: “I'm sorry to say that nothing will save us from this mess but ourselves. The world scenario notwithstanding, I'm not here to smash your hearts, minds, and spirits against the face of the reality that we have set before us. I'm here to remind us to carry with us a little bit of hope.

“I served in the military for eight years, six of those for the USAF Intelligence apparatus that mutated into the drone program that we see today. And even though through Trump's 🦀 administration we see more killings of civilians from the air in Iraq and Syria in the first year of his administration than the entire Obama administration combined, we can also see that this comes from the elites’ desperation to hold on to whatever scraps of power that they can through fear and intimidation.”[1]

Brandon recalled: “My mother once told me something I’ll always remember. I asked her, ‘Why doesn't somebody do anything about the problems in the world today?’ She said, ‘Brandon, you're somebody.’”

As someone in the military’s drone program, Brandon was always under orders. As a whistleblower, he says, “I think that I have done a good job in setting the example of somebody who has made grievous mistakes out of foolishness and naivety, has taken responsibility for my own faults in my own actions, 🕊 and has decided to do something about it.And with the legitimacy that I have gained, through the madness and the grief, I offer my voice and actions once again to step into the arena and face the monsters of humanity as myself.  I have nothing to offer but myself.  I think that's enough.”

--- The RootsAction Education Fund team

Background:
>>  Democracy Now: An interview with Brandon Bryant (https://www.democracynow.org/2013/10/25/a_drone_warriors_torment_ex_air)
>>  Rolling Stone: Individuals, Worlds Apart, United By the Trauma of Drone Strikes (https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/individuals-worlds-apart-united-by-the-trauma-of-drone-strikes-20131029)
>>  Democracy Now: “Numbing & Horrible”: Former Drone Operator Brandon Bryant on His Haunting First Kill (https://www.democracynow.org/2015/11/20/numbing_horrible_former_drone_operator_brandon)
>>  Los Angeles Times: U.S. veterans support legal fight by Yemini man whose relatives were killed in drone strike (http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-drone-targeting-lawsuit-20160908-snap-story.html)

Footnote:
1. Newsweek: New Data About Airstrikes During Trump's 🦀First 10 Months In Office Should Sound Alarm Bells (http://www.newsweek.com/trumps-presidency-only-10-months-old-and-new-data-his-airstrikes-alarm-684084)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fstatic.thefrisky.com%2Fuploads%2F2016%2F02%2Fmussolini-compressed.jpg&hash=22d210e9f200cd4c5a48fb8b66324da33ea0b063)
Trump 🦀 is Mussolini on murderous steroids.


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 10, 2018, 06:28:21 pm
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https://youtu.be/q_sDgMDp3Po

February 9, 2018

Trump 🦀, Pence 🐉Rain on Koreas' Olympic Unity Parade

In a show of unity, athletes from North and South Korea marched at the Winter Olympics' Opening Ceremony under the same flag. But the Trump administration is doing its best to thwart hopes for peace on the peninsula, says Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21112
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 17, 2018, 05:13:50 pm
 February 16, 2018

Israeli Strikes in Egypt Kept Secret for Years

Over a hundred bombings and invasions did not weaken ISIS in Sinai

https://youtu.be/ksulNgJ5bHw

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21161%27%20style=%27color:#000;

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 20, 2018, 07:17:26 pm
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February 19, 2018

Wilkerson: The Trump-Netanyahu Iran Plan Means War

As Benjamin Netanyahu threatens war, Col. Lawrence Wilkerson says that in targeting Iran, the U.S. and Israel are threatening wider conflict in Syria and Lebanon

https://youtu.be/unyN3R4rZpY

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21174
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 11, 2018, 08:35:43 pm
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March 9, 2018
Can Trump, Kim, and Moon Make Peace in Korea? (1/2)

After months of bellicose rhetoric and fears of nuclear war, President Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have agreed to historic face-to-face talks. Independent journalist Tim Shorrock and Christine Ahn of Women Cross DMZ discuss the prospects for an agreement and the overlooked role of South Korea in getting both sides to the table

https://youtu.be/D4HuYWykeFE

March 10, 2018

Why the Panic (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85) over Korea Peace Talks? (2/2)

https://youtu.be/SkY6wuJFHSM

As President Trump and Kim Jong-Un agree to historic talks, centrist voices are expressing alarm based on a self-serving and false reading  of history, says Timothy Shorrock

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21333
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 11, 2018, 09:25:21 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)


March 10, 2018

Israel Lobby   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2Fwww_MyEmoticons_com__smokelots.gif&hash=094f88de6782c1cd03ed5321b387792046eb3cdd)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.pic4ever.com%2Fimages%2F245.gif&hash=67462ab647fbd65cb336e77c93c2601e477da0a9) Doesn't Want
Al Jazeera
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)🕵️ to Spill its Secrets

Qatar is under pressure to bury an undercover Al Jazeera documentary that exposes the Israel Lobby in the US. Asa Winstanley of the Electronic Intifada says the film's key revelations include the close cooperation between the neocon Foundation for the Defense of Democracies and the Israeli government

https://youtu.be/4VVl5eanmiQ

http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21316:Israel-Lobby-Doesn%27t-Want-Al-Jazeera-to-Spill-its-Secrets

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 26, 2018, 05:08:19 pm
Trump 🦀 to the International Community: Drop Dead

Monday, March 26, 2018

By John Feffer, TomDispatch | News Analysis

SNIPPET:

The writing has been on the wall in big block letters from the earliest moments of the Trump era 😈🐉🦕🦖. In May 2017, in his first town hall meeting with State Department staff, Tillerson 🦖 warned that human rights should not become an obstacle in the US pursuit of national interests, a shot across the department's bow that contributed to a wave of subsequent resignations. Similarly, the administration's first National Security Strategy barely mentioned human rights.

Full article:

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/43962-trump-to-the-international-community-drop-dead-washington-takes-on-the-world
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 26, 2018, 05:49:21 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

March 26, 2018

Meet Neocon John Bolton 👹, the Most Hawkish National Security Adviser Imaginable

Trump's new national security adviser John Bolton, an architect of the Iraq War, is an extreme hawk who wants to bomb Iran and North Korea and demanded regime change in Libya, Syria, and Venezuela - Ben Norton reports.

https://youtu.be/60VuShX_SmM

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21445%27%20style=%27color:#000;
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 29, 2018, 07:36:10 pm
I'll see your 60 Diplomats, and raise you 150...

RE

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/world/europe/russia-expels-diplomats.html (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/29/world/europe/russia-expels-diplomats.html)

Europe
Russia Will Expel 150 Diplomats, as Tensions With West Reach Fever Pitch

By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑAMARCH 29, 2018

(https://static01.nyt.com/images/2018/03/31/world/europe/31russia-retaliates2/merlin_136161840_c8e9d280-1075-4f9c-8366-605de1be5425-master768.jpg)
Foreign Minister Sergey V. Lavrov of Russia on Thursday announcing the Kremlin’s decision to retaliate for the expulsion of Russian diplomats from Western nations. Credit Yuri Kadobnov/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

LONDON — Intensifying Russia’s clash with Europe and the United States, the Kremlin on Thursday announced that it would expel 150 Western diplomats and close the American consulate in St. Petersburg.

The action was in retaliation for the expulsion of more than 150 Russian officials from other countries — which was itself a reaction to a nerve-agent attack on British soil that Britain and its allies have blamed on Moscow.

The United States ambassador to Russia, Jon M. Huntsman Jr., was summoned to the Foreign Ministry, the foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, announced. Sixty American diplomats will be expelled from Russia — the same as the number of Russian diplomats whom Washington is expelling. The Americans were given until April 5 to leave the country.

The crisis over the poisoning of a former Russian double agent and his daughter has driven tensions between the Kremlin and the West to their highest pitch in decades. The tit-for-tat responses raise the prospect of further, more serious escalations, either public or clandestine.

Relations were already rocky over Moscow’s roles in the wars in Syria and Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea, its meddling in elections in the United States and elsewhere, the assassination of Kremlin foes in Russia and abroad, cyberattacks and disinformation campaigns against other countries and what Western officials have described as a broad, largely covert effort to destabilize and discredit liberal democracies.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

    Yulia Skripal, Poisoned Daughter of Ex-Spy, Is Out of Critical Condition MARCH 29, 2018
    Scores of Russians Expelled by U.S. and Its Allies Over U.K. Poisoning MARCH 26, 2018
    Britain Expels 23 Russian Diplomats Over Ex-Spy’s Poisoning MARCH 14, 2018

Recent Comments
uw 1 minute ago

It was expected. Washington reaction to expel Russians was outside of any reason and was based on flimsy pretext
DJS1955 1 minute ago

All of this is due to the lack of leadership on the part of the U.S in responding to and setting limits on previous outrageous activities of...
Midwest Josh 1 minute ago

Jon Huntsman should be in his 2nd term as President, not currently our Ambassador to Russia. He was the smartest guy on stage in 2012. By...

Russia as a whole and many powerful Russians individually are already under economic sanctions by the West, and London has vowed to tighten its scrutiny and control of the vast Russian wealth — much of it held by allies of President Vladimir V. Putin — that has flowed into Britain in recent years. Britain has also said it will re-examine several suspicious deaths of Kremlin opponents.

Mr. Putin and his government have denied any involvement in the March 4 attack on Sergei V. Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, and have tried to cast blame on Britain, the United States, Ukraine, the Czech Republic and others.
Photo
The United States consulate in St. Petersburg, Russia, will be closed, the Kremlin announced. Credit Olga Maltseva/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

The Skripals were found unconscious in a busy shopping area in the small English city of Salisbury, where Mr. Skripal lives. He remains hospitalized in critical condition, but his daughter is showing improvement, British officials announced on Thursday. British officials say that hundreds of people could have been exposed to Novichok, the toxin used against the Skripals.

Mr. Lavrov said that Russia had called for a meeting next Tuesday of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons to discuss the Skripal case.

Prime Minister Theresa May of Britain and her government contend that the pair were poisoned with one of an extremely powerful class of nerve agents known as “Novichok,” developed by Soviet scientists in the 1970s and ’80s. They claim to have solid evidence that Russia was probably behind the attack, and that Mr. Putin himself probably approved it.

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The British government has not made its evidence public, but has shared it with major allies, who have said that they agree with London’s conclusions. The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, the international body that polices a chemical weapons ban treaty, is investigating.

President Trump, who has long been loath to criticize Mr. Putin or his government, has made no public statement on the nerve-agent attack or who was to blame for it. But officials in his administration have publicly backed Mrs. May’s statements, and on Monday the president ordered the expulsion of 60 Russian officials who work in the United States, and the closing of the Russian consulate in Seattle.

More than 20 other countries, primarily European, also announced expulsions on Monday, and a few more joined in on Tuesday, as did NATO headquarters in Brussels. The expulsions were a remarkable show of international unity and coordination, in solidarity with Britain, which had already forced 23 Russian officials to leave the country; Moscow responded by expelling 23 Britons.

In all, 27 countries are ejecting more than 150 Russians, including people listed by their embassies and consulates as diplomats, and military and cultural attachés. Western officials say that many of the Russians are spies and that the expulsions will hinder Russian espionage efforts.

Mr. Skripal, a former colonel in Russian military intelligence who was imprisoned in Russia for selling secrets to the British, was sent to Britain in 2010 as part of a spy swap. Why he would be targeted years later is unclear, but political and security analysts have said that the attack served as a warning to those who would cross Mr. Putin that, even in exile, they are never beyond the Kremlin’s reach.

On March 12, Nikolai A. Glushkov, a former Russian business executive and critic of the government, died suddenly at his home in London, and the police are treating the case as a murder investigation.

Oleg Matsnev and Ivan Nechepurenko contributed reporting from Moscow.
Continue reading the main story
Related Coverage

    Yulia Skripal, Poisoned Daughter of Ex-Spy, Is Out of Critical Condition MARCH 29, 2018
    Scores of Russians Expelled by U.S. and Its Allies Over U.K. Poisoning MARCH 26, 2018
    Britain Expels 23 Russian Diplomats Over Ex-Spy’s Poisoning MARCH 14, 2018

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 05, 2018, 08:31:55 pm
 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

April 5, 2018

Remembering the Revolutionary Martin Luther King Jr. ✨

Highlights from TRNN's event honoring MLK on the 50th anniversary of his assassination, featuring his 1967 speech, "Why I am Opposed to the War in Vietnam,"   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fcliparts.co%2Fcliparts%2FBig%2FEgq%2FBigEgqBMT.png&hash=e7eec62f009cdd686ce795fad0a53c6befe748e9)and a discussion with actor Danny Glover, Our Revolution President Nina Turner, and Executive Producer Eddie Conway

https://youtu.be/D0N97BLtre0

https://youtu.be/Epw509Zz_0U

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21514



Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 05, 2018, 09:04:19 pm
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January 19, 2014

King's Teachings on US Imperialism Opened My Eyes to Radical Thought - Dayvon Love on Reality Asserts Itself (1/2)

Young Baltimore activist Dayvon Love tells Paul Jay how MLK's teaching that American blacks must be anti-imperialist, changed his life.

https://youtu.be/A7coYUu0uVo

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=11361
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 11, 2018, 02:04:39 pm

Russia Furious As U.S. Navy Destroyer Approaches Syria Without Notification
"Moreover, US President Donald Trump said that he would think about the missile attack on Syria despite any resolutions at the UN Security Council. All this smells of something are outside the framework of universally recognised international norms," Shamanov added...

Hilarity ensues.

However, after yesterday news that the office of Trump's personal lawyer was raided by the FBI and that attorney-client privilege between Trump and Cohen may be compromised, it now appears that in a desperate diversion attempt from his domestic troubles, a military response against Syria by Trump is now inevitable...

That Trump will declare war and condemn all of us to death to defend his position and ego is a given. What is incorrect is the assertion "that attorney-client privilege between Trump and Cohen may be compromised." It is most emphatically NOT.

Note that, according to the American Bar Association, conversations between attorney and client when there is reason to suspect both are involved in an ongoing criminal activity are NOT actually protected by law and are subject to investigation. It's called the Crime-Fraud Exception, which says: The legal community does not deem discussions concerning future wrongdoings, such as fraud, that occur during an attorney-client communications worthy of protection. While the practice of law encourages full and frank communications between the attorney and client, ONLY communications concerning past wrongdoings are protected.

Make of that what you will.


Surly,

I didn't know about the Crime-Fraud Exception. Thanks for the info.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)


Webster Tarpley has an interesting take on what Trump's reaction will be when he finds his family jewels in a vice grip. Tarpley believes Trump is a coward and will fold under any real pressure, NOT from Russia, but from the Pentagon war lovers that surround him.

That, of course, ends up resulting in more warlike moves, regardless of what Trump wants to do to distract we-the-people. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183312.bmp&hash=02dafef2fe739676600fdc9bd56271f0f5ab3723)


All that said, I believe the war lovers at the Pentagon are more rational than Trump. Their whole SCAM (that began with 911) is OPERATION ENDURING MEGA-PENTAGON BUDGET. So, they always want some level of war excuse going on that continues to fleece us on behalf of weapons manufacturers, but, is never on the scale that actually would require all-out war.

The problem with that too clever by a half calculation is that constant saber rattling is precisely what has ALWAYS triggered massive conflicts in the past.

Many will disagree with me on this, but I am certain that Trump will be removed from office by hook or by crook if he does not do what the M.I.C. wants him to do. Trump, though the trumpers were fooled into thinking he was an "outsider", IS a creature of the Deep State.

These creatures are not always obedient to their masters in our disguised military dictatorship. The moment they step out of line, a "lone nut" shows up. Nobody wants to talk about it, but that is precisely how they "reined in" Reagan in when he started making noises the Bush powers that be did not like.   

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 11, 2018, 10:06:16 pm

Even with WW3 maybe only HOURS away, you are still all laughing and joking about the possible Death of the World.

My take on the possibility of WW3 with Captain Cheeto at the helm is that it ain't gonna happen. 

Besides that, we have a global economy now.  That economy is balanced by all of the fuckers at the top across all of the nations.  Murika is the bully in charge of that with Captain Cheeto head bully in charge.  He makes a real good bully.  He's stupid and doesn't know it, and he's weak. 

Anyways, I listen to the Murikan news on satellite radio these days.  I do that to hear human voices in conversation because even I get lonely driving this truck.  I listen to Fox, CNN, MSNBC, BBC, and NPR.  They are all full of ****, and I get a good laugh listening to their "fair and balanced" propaganda bullshit.  They are very good at getting you to believe their bullshit.  But it's all bullshit and it's bad for you.  I don't believe any of it. 

Yesterday I listened to the entire Zuckerberg hearing, and all of the Senators with their questions.  Interesting.  Apparently Swampbook doesn't sell data...lol...according to Suckerburg.  He also seems like a likable fella.  I found myself thinking, as I listened to our senators, that maybe democracy is working.  Maybe it's not a Corporatocracy running everything.  Then I laughed at myself for thinking something so preposterous. 

I don't think we are going to have WW3, especially not nuclear WW3.  Nobody wins with nuclear WW3, and that's why I think that.  Even the .0001% lose in that case.  They will all just "saber rattle" and take conventional pop shots at each other.  Captain Baby Cheetos will keep tweeting his digital diarrhea, and nobody will take him seriously with exception to the members of the global idiocracy. 

Eventually war will happen in Murika.  It will happen when gas and diesel stop being viable at the pumps.  When the fuel drys up for the masses we will have the end.  There will be massive civil unrest, looting, and rednecks and gangbangers out shootin' it all up.  When the gas dries up it's over.  Until that happens BAU will just keep on keepin' on in all corners of the world.  Unless, that is, the world shakes us off like flees with climate change or some over natural disaster with global scope. 

The only ends I see are two.  Either we run out of viable fuel or the biosphere puts an end to it.  We won't have global war, not until either of the two options I just mentioned happen.
 

https://youtu.be/KgzQuE1pR1w

Quote
not even Billionaires can stop the progress of Collapse.

A Collapse that has a nuclear strike on 12 April 2018 could have been stopped if you had got off your asses in 1980 and acted bravely, and no I don't mean by voting for Carter.  You've had Earth First, The Weathermen, Tim McVeigh, Ted Kaczynski, Ploughshares, to inspire you, but you told yourself jokes and stuck to safe subjects for discussion instead.

Without WW3, Collapse would play out very differently. THAT is what billionaires can't stop.  But YOU could have stopped WW3 if you had bothered.

Damn, I already wrote about this in my lost post. LOL.

Short version...I have definite regrets. I could have gone a different way, and at this point I do regret not becoming more of an activist. I never thought things would get to where we are now so fast. I knew it was likely, even when I was 16. But I thought collapse was in the very distant future. I knew about Silent Spring. I knew about Bucky Fuller. But where I lived there was no real movement to join. I only read about such things in the Whole Earth Catalog.

By 1980 my course was set. I'd have had to change course in 1974. I even thought about moving to the Farm back then. I liked what they were doing. But it wasn't like now. I couldn't email Albert Bates like I can now. I led a very isolated life, far from most like-minded people. I lived in my head a lot, and still do.

I'm not a joiner or a crusader. I've always been cynical about politics anyway. I didn't start voting at all until 1980, and I was trying to prove myself wrong about it being useless. That's why I did it. So nobody could say I didn't participate.

I hope somewhere in the multiverse there is a version of the US of A that listened to Bucky and didn't vote for Ronnie Raygun. Instead they got an early handle on PO and climate change...and managed to create some kind of society that didn't starve most people while making a few people wildly affluent. I really do hope that world is real, and maybe I can be born into that in my next incarnation. This earth is a cooked goose, and it's all over but the dying, which will commence soon enough.

I didn't change the world, but I get the lesson.

Getting the lesson, to me, might be just as important as changing the world.
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3)


Eddie and Lucid,

GREAT posts!  : (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-141113185701.png&hash=615e3c1aa9c374cb1eab5bfc1e9494f2cb05e9f7)

I agree WWIII ain't gonna happen. That said, I would LOVE to see the price of oil go to $300 a barrel! $1000 a barrel would be even better!  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)


But, if that does not happen within a couple of years, the climate is going to GIT us. Sure, it will take a while to git most of us and a few of us may make it all the way through. I do not find that to be much of a consolation. 😓

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 11, 2018, 10:19:21 pm
Quote
Eddie: This is the only world I ever found to live in, unfortunately. 

Ever heard of Mexico, about 2 hours drive away?

It's not that close. Maybe 4 or 5  hours to the closest border town, which from here is Piedras Negras, I think.

And yes, I've spent some time in Mexico, and I've read what a couple of ex-pats have written about living there. But I never learned the language (a failing of mine, it would even help me here, of that there is little doubt). I have enjoyed my trips to Mexico, but I haven't seen even a fraction of it.

And places I used to go with no worries are not at all safe anymore. When I was young, hippie kids went to the market in Matamoros in droves and we bought our huaraches and wedding shirts and a lot of junk. I went to Acuna, and I bought a very bad guitar when I was 16. That's the shithole where they shot the movie Mariachi. I wouldn't go there at all now. People get shot all the time.

I love Merida and Tulum, and even Cozumel, even though it's not nearly as cool as it was 30 years ago. Neither is Chichen Itza, but its still a place where you can feel the power of what it once was. Enough human sacrifices in one place, and it leaves a kind of creepy psychic residue that's palpable. I felt that anyway, and I'm fairly skeptical about such things.

I've been through the jungle to the pyramids at Coba and  Ek Balam. I've swum in deep clear sinkholes and eaten Octopus ceviche at the Casa Cenote by the Cenote Manatee on Tanka Bay. There's a tiny hotel there I used to dream of buying, but I never had that kind of money.

I'm no expert, but I have met prominent people who do what I do in Mexico, and I can tell you only the connected doctors who are from rich families and cater to rich families make real money. There is no middle class in Mexico. I couldn't make a living there.

The co-founder of this site, Peter, lost his life savings trying to make an ex-pat life in Mexico, from what I understand, and had to return to Canada. RE knows more of that story than I do.

There are some intentional communities in Mexico that I've investigated. Like the ones everywhere else, they're a mixed bag, and you have to buy in to participate, and the ones I saw aren't cheap.

As an alternative living place, I'd pick BC over Mexico, or David's northern Ontario cottage country.  Or C5's Maritime country. But, I have ties to this place. Lots of good reasons for staying, at least for the moment.

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 12, 2018, 05:17:29 pm
World War III: The False Narrative that Fuels Conflict in Syria and Beyond

by TDB

Thu, 04/12/2018 - 11:34

Via The Daily Bell

SNIPPET 1:

The timing is fit for a movie plot climax!

Just as Trump announced intentions to get out of Syria, Assad did something unspeakable. According to Assad’s opposition, the Syrian government “once again” used chemicals weapons on civilians.

At a time when the war is almost won for Assad, he decided to re-ignite international calls for his ouster by senselessly murdering about the same number of civilians the Las Vegas Shooter killed. Seems logical, right?  ;)

Well, there goes the Syrian exit! 😇 😈

SNIPPET 2:

CNN reported in 2012 that America was involved in training the rebels to secure and monitor chemical weapons sites.

Quote
The United States and some European allies are using defense contractors to train Syrian rebels on how to secure chemical weapons stockpiles in Syria, a senior U.S. official and several senior diplomats told CNN Sunday.

The training, which is taking place in Jordan and Turkey, involves how to monitor and secure stockpiles and handle weapons sites and materials, according to the sources. Some of the contractors are on the ground in Syria working with the rebels to monitor some of the sites, according to one of the officials.

This confirms that rebel forces had access to chemical weapons and that the U.S. helped familiarize rebel groups with storing and transporting the weapons.

And now, with the rebels almost defeated, someone  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) decided to use chemical weapons against a few dozen civilians.

And everyone (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270117175421.png&hash=cf39e823dd9156833bfa885808a876bf518bd0d6) had to know that this was the most likely way to drag the U.S. deeper into the conflict.

SNIPPET  3:

There are No Good Guys

It is important to remember that there are no “good guys and bad guys” here. Arguably, they are all bad guys.

Full article with accurate history of war causing events in Syria:  8)

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-04-12/world-war-iii-false-narrative-fuels-conflict-syria-and-beyond

Agelbert NOTE: Operation Enduring Pentagon MEGA-Budget continues to BE, uh, somehow, "JUSTIFIED". (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs2.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Fbe%2Fbead363502f8e7564038c7072c490cfc0da55bf30c42bb1f04983157e9ae7125.jpg&hash=d25668b2bf3b320d4d3ea2f30ed3c71741c21bbd)

Suckers! 🕵️ (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4)





Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 28, 2018, 08:06:28 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

 April 27, 2018

Korean War Finally Ending ✨, in Huge Victory for Peace Activists  🕊 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418194750.png&hash=33306d958aa508c856b37611a4bc53e8aba20d22)

North and South Korea have agreed to sign a peace deal, after nearly 70 years of war. Christine Ahn says this is thanks to dedicated activism inside and outside of the Korean Peninsula.

https://youtu.be/GfGiD5rNRBg

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21672
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 30, 2018, 09:00:41 pm
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April 30, 2018

Israeli Military 🦍😈 Attacks Iranian Backed Syrian Bases

Col. Larry Wilkerson: Israel does not want to end the war in Syria, it is in their interest to keep this war going, and to keep the Iran Nuclear Deal from succeeding

https://youtu.be/f52uTFkWDwU

http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=21693
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 01, 2018, 03:06:30 pm
US Officials: Israel 😈 Preparing For War With Iran, SeekingUS 🦀 Support

by Tyler Durden

Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:14

Not that there was much doubt who was behind it, but two days after "enemy" warplanes attacked a Syrian military base near Hama on Sunday, killing at least 11 Iranians and dozens of others, and nobody had yet "claimed responsibility" the attack, US officials told NBC that it was indeed Israeli F-15 fighter jets that struck the base, NBC News reported.

Wow! Video of a huge explosion just now in #Salhab in #Hama, reasons still unknown pic.twitter.com/AfWYRAzosT

— Danny Makki (@Dannymakkisyria) April 29, 2018
Ominously, the officials said Israel appears to be preparing for open warfare with Iran and is seeking U.S. help and support.

"On the list of the potentials for most likely live hostility around the world, the battle between Israel and Iran in Syria is at the top of the list right now," said one senior U.S. official.

Fire and explosions are seen in the countryside south of Hama city, Syria, April 29, 2018
The US officials told NBC that Israeli F-15s hit Hama after Iran delivered weapons to a base that houses Iran's 47th Brigade, including surface-to-air missiles. In addition to killing two dozen troops, including officers, the strike wounded three dozen others. The report adds that the U.S. officials believe the shipments were intended for Iranian ground forces that would attack Israel.

Meanwhile, as we reported yesterday, the Syrian army said early on Monday that "enemy" rockets struck military bases belonging to Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime. According to several outlets, the strikes targeted the 47th Brigade base in the southern Hama district, a military facility in northwestern Hama and a facility north of the Aleppo International Airport.

Meanwhile, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman said on Tuesday that Israel on Tuesday morning had four problems, one more than the day before: "Iran, Iran, Iran and hypocrisy." The comment came one day after Israel PM Benjamin Netanyahu "revealed" a cache of documents the Mossad stole from Iran detailing the country's nuclear program, which however critics said were i) old and ii) not indicative of Iran's current plans.

"This is the same Iran that cracks down on freedom of expression and on minorities. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030815183114.gif&hash=2bf1553e87e8605311feb874231953d5fb88ee9c) The same Iran that tried to develop nuclear weapons (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030815183114.gif&hash=2bf1553e87e8605311feb874231953d5fb88ee9c) and entered the [nuclear] deal for economic benefits (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030815183114.gif&hash=2bf1553e87e8605311feb874231953d5fb88ee9c) ,” Lieberman 😈  said.

“The same Iran is trying to hide its weapons while everyone ignores it. The state of Israel cannot ignore Iran's threats, Iran, whose senior officials promise to wipe out Israel,” he said. “They are trying to harm us (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030815183114.gif&hash=2bf1553e87e8605311feb874231953d5fb88ee9c), and we’ll have a response.

Iran's Defense Minister Amir Khatami threatened Israel on Tuesday, saying it should stop its "dangerous behavior" and vowing that the "Iranian response will be surprising and you will regret it." Khatami's remarks came Following Netanyahu's speech which Khatami described as Israeli "provocative actions," and two days after the strikes in Syria.

* * *

Meanwhile, in a potential hint at the upcoming conflict, Haaretz writes that two and a half weeks after the bombing in which seven members of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards were killed at the T4 base in Syria, Israel is bracing for an Iranian retaliation for the Syrian strikes (and if one isn't forthcoming, well that's what false flags are for).

As Haaretz writes, the Iranians’ response, despite their frequent threats of revenge, is being postponed, screwing up Iran's war planning. It’s also possible that as time passes, Tehran is becoming more aware of the possible complex consequences of any action. Still, the working assumption of Israeli defense officials remains that such a response is highly probable.

The Iranians appear to have many options. Revenge could come on the Syrian border, from the Lebanese border via Hezbollah, directly from Iran by the launch of long-range missiles, or against an Israeli target abroad. In past decades Iran and Hezbollah took part, separately and together, in two attacks in Argentina, a suicide attack in Bulgaria and attempts to strike at Israeli diplomats and tourists in countries including India, Thailand and Azerbaijan.

In any case, Lebanon seems all but out of bounds until the country’s May 6 parliamentary elections, and amid Hezbollah’s fear of being portrayed as an Iranian puppet. The firing of missiles from Iran would exacerbate the claims about Tehran’s missile project a moment before a possible U.S. decision on May 12 to abandon the nuclear agreement. Also, a strike at a target far from the Middle East would require long preparation.

* * *

For now, an Israeli war with Iran in Syria is far from inevitable: the clash of intentions is clear: Iran is establishing itself militarily in Syria and Israel has declared that it will prevent that by force. The question, of course, is whether this unstable equilibrium will devolve into a lethal escalation, or if it will somehow be resolved through peaceful negotiation. Unfortunately, in the context of recent events, and the upcoming breakdown of the Iran nuclear deal, the former is looking like the most likely outcome.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-01/us-officials-israel-preparing-war-iran-seeking-us-support

Agelbert NOTE: Dear readers, don't be fooled by this Orwellian exercise in mindfork news. THIS is ALL about sabotaging the US agreement to not sanction Iran that is up for review NOW in May. Israel is the totally unjustified aggressor (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) here with Tump's 🦀 Pompeo Kochroach(https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/9adc777a0e08428257b76ece69d18ee52006bb5e39d60d966bb2440d29d17641.jpg) cheerleading the Zionist Fascist warmongering all the way. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120716190938.png&hash=01feab1c7345a4e98764e0f9d24b2d69171b93c2)

There is much truth in the comments (see below). 🧐
Quote
Son of Captain Nemo Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:15 Permalink
If you're still an investor in the stock market after you've read this one... Try to put a smiley  face on the financial outlook for Wall Street based on THIS announcement???...

Speaking of forecasts for the market(s)!....

Needless to say the fat assed 3 $tar $milin nate is on board and willing to make whatever $acrifices are necessary WITH HIS OWN (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-03-19/top-us-general-says-american-…) who will be more than happy to die making the Tribe exceedingly HAPPY (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samson_Option) SOMEWHERE "ELSE"!...

Now hit that big red plastic button center (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-251117173905.jpeg&hash=3ee1f30d42d58a5d6488780f315a4177ea456938) that says it for U.S.!!!

P.S.

If we could get all of our current active military and veterans to sign this (https://www.ae911truth.org/) and tell Syphilis-in-Chief NOT ONLY NO BUT HELL "NO"!...

And then nuke Israel and Saudi Arabia with our Navy this World would finally be able to start over!!!

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strannick  Son of Captain Nemo Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:19 Permalink
If Christians would stop worshipping Israel, and Israel would start worshipping Christ, what a wonderful world.

In reply to Put the financial outlook… by Son of Captain Nemo
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Dickweed Wang  strannick Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:19 Permalink
When are the morons in the USA that get their "news" from MSM outlets (i.e. from the government) going to realize the essentially nothing to do with IsraHell is good for the people of the US??  It's time to totally cut off the foreign and military aid to that little P.o.S. country. If they want to start a war with Iran then hey, go for it.  Just don't ask or expect the US to act like big brother and come in to kick someone's ass when you started the **** in the first place.  But we all know logic, common sense or reality for that matter has no place in the "relationship" between the US and IsraHell.

The creation of IsraHell during the 1940's will go down as one of the most evil events in the history of the world.

In reply to W by strannick
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FireBrander  GlassHouse101 Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:26 Permalink
The USA should fully support Israel by selling it all the rope it needs to hang itself in a war with Iran.

In reply to I think we can start… by GlassHouse101

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BullyBearish  FireBrander Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:30 Permalink
disgusting how anti-war pre-president trump becomes military pandering trumpanyahoo after election...his handlers, knowing he will need them in the near future, set him to constantly stroke the military every opportunity he has...

    B O N E     S P U R S

In reply to W by FireBrander

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Chupacabra-322  BullyBearish Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:36 Permalink
The Western globalist billionaires and elites are ultimately responsible for any aggression coming from Israel. If they can conquer and control Iran and take over its oil and gas reserves, risking the fate of the millions of people in Iran, Syria and in Israel, then the losses to them will be incidental. The Western-globalist-Zio-hawk Axis no doubt feels it has to act now against Iran in case everything settles down in the ME with the Syrian war cooling off. Any expansion of Israeli turf or getting control of resources to the north would be stymied with further waiting and allowing both Syrian and Iranian defense systems to be further fortified.  The Israelis appear to be completely confident that if they can instigate a war with Iran that it will be backed by the US, the UK, France and other NATO nations.

That confidence could only come from the Western elites running things.  However, after their last fizzled false-flag poison-gas attack in Syria, the support by many NATO nations for more Axis aggression may not be that solid.  So what does the Israeli tough talk and threats mean at this time? Perhaps it means that Israel is in the process of concocting a massive and much more sophisticated  false-flag attack, like the taking out of a US war ship and blaming Iran for starting the war.

Remember Five points:

1. Isreal will fight to the very last American Soldiers Death.

2. The Zionist screams in Pain as he Stikes you.

3.The Yinon Plan.

4.Operation TALPIOT.

5. Qatari Pipeline Petro Dollar Vs. Russia / China Petro Yaun.

One bright aspect is the Anti-Isreal / Jew Zionist movement is gaining steam.  More & more Individuals are speaking openly against Israel’s War Crimes, False Flag involvements, The Yinon Plan along with Pro Zionist immigrantion policy of migrating Muslim’s &  Arabs to the EU & US without fear of retribution.  Pro migration policy which supports territory boarder expansion via the Yinon Plan & ethnic cleansing & migration of Arabs & Muslim’s.

Not to mention the Billions in US foreign aid, AIPAC, ZioNeoConFascist NGO’s & dual Israeli Citizen’s which hold Political Office in CONgress.  Which must be outlawed. 

In reply to disgusting how anti-war pre… by BullyBearish

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evoila  Chupacabra-322 Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:37 Permalink
Iran proving it is the rational actor in this.

In reply to The Western globalist… by Chupacabra-322

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Gadfly  BullyBearish Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:37 Permalink
Don't take the bait Trump. We elected you to get us out, not to go all in for the Israeli/One World Order agenda.  If you go along with this and get us into another war in the Middle East, you're a one term President.  I guarantee it.

In reply to disgusting how anti-war pre… by BullyBearish

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BullyBearish  Gadfly Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:43 Permalink
HDGaF...

In reply to Don't take the bait Trump… by Gadfly

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Eyes Opened  BullyBearish Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:51 Permalink
“They are trying to harm us, and we’ll have a response"

The word "response" seems inappropiate somehow...

Kinda like getting in your retaliation first..😒

In reply to disgusting how anti-war pre… by BullyBearish

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Truther  FireBrander Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:32 Permalink
The Khazars are looking down at their sandy graves. Their wish will come true.

In reply to W by FireBrander

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BangDingOw  Slimedon1 Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:50 Permalink
Anyone who thinks the NOK peace deal lining up with the iran war deal is a coincidence ought to think again. There are no such coincidences. The cabal knows the American people cannot handle threatening global thermonuclear war against 2 countries at the same time. Either Kim is a puppet, or they made him an offer he can't refuse. Either way he is a puppet. iran is in the crosshairs now regardless of what she does.

In reply to It is pretty uncanny how… by Slimedon1

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Polynik3s  GlassHouse101 Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:55 Permalink
At five pounds a turd, I can get you 200 Bullshits to equal Israel's evidence for another goyim war.

In order for the world to live, Lucifarian Zionism must die.

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Manthong  Dickweed Wang Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:26 Permalink
..the good news is that Tel Aviv will be crossed off the list of tourist destinations unless the populace there puts the tribal chiefs are put in their place.

In reply to . by Dickweed Wang

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MK ULTRA Alpha  Manthong Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:30 Permalink
What about the 3 billion barrels of Syrian oil under the Golan. And block 9 Lebanon gas field.

And the plan to take southern Lebanon for the off shore gas field and the water.

It was the water, now it's water, oil and natural gas.

No word on Jew controlled MSM.

And no word on the killing of over 500,000 Syrian Christians out of a prewar population of 2 million.

https://genieoilgas.com/about-us/strategic-advisory-board/

Genie oil company, a Jewish controlled Red Shield operation. Why is this not told to the American people?

In reply to ..the good news is that Tel… by Manthong

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inosent  Manthong Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:30 Permalink
The God damned jews and God damned israhell are at it again. Same old thing. When I contemplate the sublimity of the magnificence of creation and all of its manifest beauty, I am depressed and perplexed at the grotesque evil that continually emits from the satanic cabal of the juden and their israhell - and even WORSE, that a tax liability is place on my back to pay for it all.

#tohellwithisrahell

In reply to ..the good news is that Tel… by Manthong

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Jesus von Einstein  strannick Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:27 Permalink
"The report adds that the U.S. officials believe the shipments were intended for Iranian ground forces that would attack Israel."

Why would Iran try to launch a ground attack on Israel - to guarantee they'd get nuked?  This is another lie.

Iran is in Syria, at the invitation of its government, to fight the largely, perhaps even mostly foreign [not Syrian] mercenaries, many or most of them Islamists [Sunni].  They've been fighting ISIS and Al Qaeda.

Israel, on the other hand, has by many accounts, directly and indirectly been supporting ISIS and Al Qaeda, and also attacking Syrian, Lebanese and apparently Iranian troops fighting those terror groups.

So Israel is claiming to be "defending itself" by attacking another country in order to kill people from another country, there legally, who have been fighting the Islamists/terrorists that the Israelis [and US, and Saudis] have been helping...  because, despite Israel's military and nukes and chem and bio weapons and the backing of the US...  Iran is going to attack Israel on the ground from Syria....

Listen, if you believe this, please consider the possibility you've accepted the spin and lies of inveterate, dissembling warmongers who think it's okay to kill lots and lots of people in wars of aggression reframed as 'defense.'

In reply to W by strannick

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mailll  Jesus von Einstein Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:34 Permalink
Might as well call the State of Israel the 51st state of the US, since we will defend Israel State as if it was our very own.  And since Israel want Assad and Iran taken out, there is nothing that can stop their desire.  They will, unfortunately, get what they want.  Expect war to escalate in Syria and war with Iran to break out.  I just don't see it not happening. The US and Israel will continue doing what they want to Russia's allies until the bear comes out of hibernation and says "enough is enough".  The future is going to be pretty interesting.

In reply to "The report adds that the U… by Jesus von Einstein

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Fireman  Jesus von Einstein Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:41 Permalink
The apartheid abomination in occupied Palestine is a malignant cancerous disease that needs to be defanged and broken up. The state of Palestine must be created and the chosenite khazarian dead beats must be forced to live in peace. Failing that send these killers back to the Eastern Europeon, USSAN and Russian slums that hatched them. The world can no longer indulge these monsters and their sickening hollow cost cult of murder.

No debate

No discussion

No tolerance

Boycott the horned beast of zion and all the filth that it produces. 

Barcodes 500, 729 & 871 mark the filth of "Israel"

Barcodes 7219 & 7922 mark the filth from the rest of occupied, apartheid Palestine. 

Hurt the beast where it does the damage. No more shekels for the squatters! 

In reply to "The report adds that the U… by Jesus von Einstein

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Fireman  strannick Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:31 Permalink
USSANS are finally going to grasp the problems that all nations face that open their doors to khazarian thugs. However, no nation has ever been as seriously infected with the supremacist virus as Slumville. Are USSAN tax cattle ready to die for their anglozionazi masters and the neocohen evil that is nested at the core of the cancer that is Washing town?

In reply to W by strannick

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FireBrander  strannick Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:33 Permalink
If Israel would start worshipping Christ

The Jews murdered Christ for Christs' sake!

Now you want them to worship him?

Which of Christs' "teachings" do you think they would be willing to observe as damn near every aspect of Israel is anti-Christ in manner and form.

In reply to W by strannick

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Polynik3s  strannick Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:54 Permalink
Rothschild has twin Lucifarian monsters that have enslaved and brought endlessly financed wars: Central Banking Cartel and Israel.

When Trump and Q Anon push Rothschild's agenda, they reveal their true master: Lucifarian Zionism.

In order for the world to live, Lucifarian Zionism must die.

SocratesSolves

In reply to W by strannick

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bowie28  Son of Captain Nemo Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:20 Permalink
Not what is seems.  Trump is using Israel as the attack dog for Nuke deal negotiations.

They will bark and maybe bite a little bit but will not be taken off the leash.

There will be no war and Iran will back down, just like Kim in NK did.

The game has changed.  Watch.

In reply to Put the financial outlook… by Son of Captain Nemo

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I Am Jack's Ma…  bowie28 Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:44 Permalink
Kim hasn’t given up his nukes, and you seem to think Israel wants off the leash to fight Iran...

Not at all:  Israel wants Uncle Sam to do it, and then Israel also wants help with Hezbollah because the Jews covet Southern Lebanon to the Litani.

Anyone ever consider that there is no evidence for a powerful ancient Jewish kingdom?  No major ruins...  very few refeences outside the bible to Israelites...

There is no cognizable Jewish claim whatsoever on Lebanon...  they just want the water and offshore gas.

 
In reply to Not what is seems.  Trump is… by bowie28

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junction  Son of Captain Nemo Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:21 Permalink
For more on Israel's low radiation mini-nukes (the ones they used to demolish the World Trade Center and destroy the Iranian weapons depot in Syria), go to:

https://www.veteranstoday.com/2017/01/29/iaea-source-trump-fires-accuse…

In reply to Put the financial outlook… by Son of Captain Nemo

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Perimetr  Son of Captain Nemo Tue, 05/01/2018 - 13:24 Permalink
Where is Russia in this? Does Israel get a free ride when it comes to bombing Syrian bases?

What happened to the vaunted Syrian and Russian air defenses in this latest attack?  Surely F-15s can be tracked as easily as cruise missiles?  Has Putin decided not to send the S-300s to Syria or are they not yet deployed or ???

Does Russia think it can stop a war through diplomatic means?  Good luck with that.

In reply to Put the financial outlook… by Son of Captain Nemo

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 05, 2018, 07:05:02 pm
Sunflower Newsletter: May 2018

Rick Wayman, Nuclear Age Peace Foundation
(http://www.wagingpeace.org/sunflower-newsletter-may-2018/)

May 3, 2018

Peace in Korea? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221017161839.png&hash=7d34712243960aa20883775dad728bc2115ed6fe) Hope and uncertainty mix in the wake of Kim-Moon summit

Cesar Jaramillo lays out the factors that might make or break a more sustainable peace in the Korean peninsula, from security assurances to human rights.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201112.png&hash=679f4583d6861313c256e8762c40929af1ac667e)

https://www.opencanada.org/features/peace-korea-hope-and-uncertainty-mix-wake-kim-moon-summit/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 07, 2018, 11:32:21 pm
Truthdig

MAY 02, 2018 TD ORIGINALS

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fforum.ih8mud.com%2Fattachments%2Fh6a3a1d8f-jpeg.1060027%2F&hash=87f86e6f087faf3da4e4f65ca2a7fd65bbd0c27d)

I Know Which Country the U.S. 🦍 Will Invade Next

By the end of this column, it will be clear which country the United States will invade and topple next. Or failing that, it will be clear which country our military-intelligence-industrial complex will be aching to invade next.

We all want to know why America does what it does. And I don’t mean why Americans do what we do. I think that question still will be pondered eons from now by a future professor showing his students a video mind-meld of present-day UFC fighters booting each other in the head while thrilled onlookers cheer (not for either of the fighters but rather for more booting in the head).

But we all seem to assume that America—the entity, the corporation—has some sort of larger reasoning behind the actions it takes, the actions put forward by the ruling elite. And almost all of us know that the reasons we’re given by the press secretaries and caricature-shaped heads on the nightly news are the ripest, most fetid grade of bullshit.

We now know that the invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. We now know that the crushing of Libya had nothing to do with “stopping a bad man.” If one does even a cursory check of what dictators around the world are up to recently, you’ll find that the U.S. doesn’t care in the slightest whether they are bad or good, whether they’re using their free time to kill thousands of innocent people or to harmonize their rock garden. In fact, the U.S. gives military aid to 70 percent of the world’s dictators. (One would hope that’s only around the holidays though.)


So if it’s not for the stated reasons, why does the U.S. overrun, topple and sometimes occupy the countries it does? Obviously, there are oil resources or rare minerals to be had. But there’s something else that links almost all of our recent wars.

As The Guardian reported near the beginning of the Iraq War, “In October 2000, Iraq insisted on dumping the U.S. dollar—the currency of the enemy—for the more multilateral euro.”

However, one example does not make a trend. If it did, I would be a world-renowned beer pong champion rather than touting a 1-27 record. (I certainly can’t go pro with those numbers.)

But there’s more. Soon after Libya began moving toward an African gold-based currency—and lining up all its African neighbors to join it—we invaded it as well, with the help of NATO. Author Ellen Brown pointed this out at the time of the invasion:

[Moammar Gadhafi] initiated a movement to refuse the dollar and the euro, and called on Arab and African nations to use a new currency instead, the gold dinar.

John Perkins, author of “Confessions of an Economic Hitman,” also has said that the true reason for the attack on Libya was Gadhafi’s move away from the dollar and the euro.

This week, The Intercept reported that the ousting of Gadhafi, which was in many ways led by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, actually had to do with Sarkozy secretly receiving millions from Gadhafi, and it seemed that his corruption was about to be revealed. But, the article also noted, “[Sarkozy’s] real military zeal and desire for regime change came only after [Hillary] Clinton and the Arab League broadcasted their desire to see [Gadhafi] go.” And the fact that Gadhafi was planning to upend the petrodollar in Africa certainly provides the motivation necessary. (It doesn’t take much to get the U.S. excited about a new bombing campaign. I’m pretty sure we invaded Madagascar once in the 1970s because they smoked our good weed.)

Right now you may be thinking, “But, Lee, your theory is ridiculous. If these invasions were about the banking, then the rebels in Libya—getting help from NATO and the United States—would have set up a new banking system after bringing down Gadhafi.”

Actually, they didn’t wait that long. In the middle of the brutal war, the Libyan rebels formed their own central bank.

Brown said, “Several writers have noted the odd fact that the Libyan rebels took time out from their rebellion in March to create their own central bank—this before they even had a government.”

Wow, that sure does sound like it’s all about the banking.

Many of you know about Gen. Wesley Clark’s famous quote about seven countries in five years. Clark is a four-star general, the former head of NATO Supreme Allied Command, and he ran for president in 2008 (clearly he’s an underachiever). But it’s quite possible that 100 years from now, the one thing he’ll be remembered for is the fact that he told us that the Pentagon said to him in 2002: “We’re going to take down seven countries in five years. We’re going to start with Iraq, then Syria, Lebanon, then Libya, Somalia, Sudan. We’re going to come back and get Iran in five years.”

Most of this has happened. We have, of course, added some countries to the list, such as Yemen. We’re helping to destroy Yemen largely to make Saudi Arabia happy. Apparently our government/media care only about Syrian children (in order to justify regime change). We couldn’t care less about Yemeni children, Iraqi children, Afghan children, Palestinian children, North Korean children, Somali children, Flint (Michigan) children, Baltimore children, Native American children, Puerto Rican children, Na’vi children … oh wait, I think that’s from “Avatar.” Was that fiction? My memories and 3-D movies are starting to blur together.

Brown goes even further in her analysis of Clark’s bombshell:

What do these seven countries have in common? … [N]one of them is listed among the 56 member banks of the Bank for International Settlements (BIS). That evidently puts them outside the long regulatory arm of the central bankers’ central bank in Switzerland. The most renegade of the lot could be Libya and Iraq, the two that have actually been attacked.

What I’m trying to say is: It’s all about the banking.

So right now you’re thinking, “But, Lee, then why is the U.S. so eager to turn Syria into a failed state if Syria never dropped the dollar? Your whole stupid theory falls apart right there.”

First, I don’t appreciate your tone. Second, in February 2006, Syria dropped the dollar as its primary hard currency.

I think I’m noticing a trend. In fact, on Jan. 4, it was reported that Pakistan was ditching the dollar in its trade with China, and that same day, the U.S. placed it on the watch list for religious freedom violations. The same day? Are we really supposed to believe that it just so happened that Pakistan stopped using the dollar with China on the same day it started punching Christians in the nose for no good reason? No, clearly Pakistan had violated our religion of cold hard cash.

This leaves only one question: Who will be next on the list of U.S. illegal invasions cloaked in bullshit justifications? Well, last week, Iran finally did it: It switched from the dollar to the euro. And sure enough, this week, the U.S. military-industrial complex, the corporate media and Israel all got together to claim that Iran is lying about its nuclear weapons development. What are the odds that this news would break within days of Iran dropping the dollar? What. Are. The. Odds?

The one nice thing about our corporate state’s manufacturing of consent is how predictable it is. We will now see the mainstream media running an increasing number of reports pushing the idea that Iran is a sponsor of terrorism and is trying to develop nuclear weapons (which are WMDs, but for some strange reason, our media are shying away from saying, “They have WMDs”). Here’s a 2017 PBS article claiming that Iran is the top state sponsor of terrorism. One must assume this list of terror sponsors does not include the country that made the arms that significantly enhanced Islamic State’s military capabilities. (It’s the U.S.)

Or the country that drops hundreds of bombs per day on the Middle East. (It’s the U.S.) But those bombs don’t cause any terror. Those are the happy bombs, clearly. Apparently, we just drop 1995 Richard Simmons down on unsuspecting people.

Point is, as we watch our pathetic corporate media continue their manufacturing of consent for war with Iran, don’t fall for it. These wars are all about the banking. And millions of innocent people are killed in them. Millions more have their lives destroyed.

You and I are just pawns in this game, and the last thing the ruling elite want are pawns who question the official narrative.

If you enjoyed this article, please share it, and check out Lee Camp’s free weekly podcast, “Common Censored.” (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/common-censored/id1375686977?mt=2)

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/i-know-which-country-the-u-s-will-invade-next/

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 09, 2018, 02:22:21 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

Is Trump’s 🦀 Exit From Iran Deal a Prelude to War?

May 8, 2018

With Trump withdrawing from the JCPOA and European allies showing no signs that they’ll withstand US pressure, the Iran nuclear deal is in danger and the threat of war has increased, says Jamal Abdi of the National Iranian American Council

Comprehensive analysis  (video with transcript) of this precarious situation:

https://therealnews.com/stories/is-trumps-exit-from-iran-deal-a-prelude-to-war
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 09, 2018, 02:27:05 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Ftherealnews.com%2Ft2%2Ftemplates%2Fgk_twn%2Fimages%2Flogo3.png&hash=4b5cf976827a8d50b9a86730b78230c107b3cf62)

Israel 😈 Threatens Lebanon After Hezbollah Makes Gains in Election

May 8, 2018

After Hezbollah and political allies won seats in Lebanon’s first parliamentary election in 9 years, Israeli minister Naftali Bennett threatened to retaliate against the Lebanese state for Hezbollah’s actions. Journalist Jamal Ghosn says this is the latest in a long string of threats, and Israel violates Lebanese sovereignty every day.

https://youtu.be/c8uBRUlhc_U

https://therealnews.com/stories/israel-threatens-lebanon-after-hezbollah-makes-gains-in-election
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 19, 2018, 08:02:09 pm
US-North Korea Peace Talks: Trump 🦀 Threatens Kim with Gaddafi’s Fate

May 18, 2018

Col. Larry Wilkerson: Trump’s threats, Bolton’s inexperience, combined with the military exercises in the region is putting the North Korean peace talks at risk. It is inexplicable form of diplomacy, unless you want the talks to fail

https://youtu.be/xhdJGAIFw28

https://therealnews.com/stories/us-north-korea-peace-talks-trump-threatens-kim-with-gaddafis-fate
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 22, 2018, 05:38:09 pm
What the Pentagon Papers were really all about

ASSASSINATIONS, TORTURE, DRUG DEALING, MONEY LAUNDERING – BY THE CIA

https://youtu.be/HGfwyv8_X3M

DANIEL SHEEHAN EXPLAINS

You’ve heard about the Pentagon Papers and they were a big deal. But what were the Pentagon Papers really all about?

Assassinations, torture, drug dealing, money laundering – by the CIA.

You never heard that part, did you?

Here’s the story:

While Eisenhower played golf (and recovered from a heart attack), the fledgling CIA grew fangs.

Maybe it was his exposure to the mass slaughter of WW II, but whatever the reason Eisenhower was a big fan of covert – and illegal – operations.

The CIA succeeded in using illegal, covert operations to remove the secular and popularly-elected Mossadegeh from power in Iran in 1953 and did the same thing in Guatemala in 1954.

In 1954, something called NSC 5412 was written to set up to give the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State and the President oversight over this secret, un-elected new branch of government.

The so called “Pentagon Papers” were the first public look into the operations of the 5412 committee.

But there’s more to the story than that.

Under the conniving of Allen Dulles, the 5412 committee soon calcified into a weak review board and the real action of the CIA was carried out “off the books” and away from the oversight of the 5412 committee.

That’s how the Vietnam war really started. It had little to do with the Pentagon at all.

Confused yet?

Good.

Now to go deeper down the rabbit hole…

Who exactly was Daniel Ellsberg?

For starters, he was a war hawk.

Then after proving his bona fides as a Marine Lieutenant he was loaned by the Pentagon to the CIA’s proto-Phoenix Program where he engaged in the “pacification” of the Vietnamese people under the direction of none other than CIA officer/Air Force General and overall maniac Edward Landsdale.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Long story short: The Pentagon Papers were released by a CIA operative who managed to keep the attention OFF the CIA and on the Pentagon.

There is no video on this, but there is this excellent article by Douglas Valentine: Will the real Daniel Ellsberg please stand up.

***

MARCH 8, 2003

Will the Real Daniel Ellsberg  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) Please Stand Up!

by DOUGLAS VALENTINE
 
Political activist Daniel Ellsberg became an icon in 1971 after he leaked The Pentagon Papers. This “act of conscience” helped turn public opinion against the Vietnam War, and contributed to the demise of President Richard Nixon, whose felonious minions, the infamous Plumbers, sent CIA officer E. Howard Hunt, and former FBI agent (and self-professed rat-eater) G. Gordon Liddy, to burglarize confidential files from Ellsberg’s psychiatrist’s office. Hunt and Liddy thought they could trump the anti-War movement by showing that Ellsberg was a mentally deranged LSD-abuser, but their slap-happy plan backfired, and instead opened up the Pandora’s box of the CIA inspired dirty tricks the Republican Party relied upon (and still uses today) to wage political warfare.

Starting on March 9th, the Pentagon Papers story will be broadcast as a made-for-TV movie on the popular F/X network. Based partially on Ellsberg’s autobiography, the movie will star quirky James Spader as Ellsberg, and will feature Hayley Lochner as “the wife,” Jonas Chernick as CIA connected New York Times reporter Neil Sheehan, and Paul Giamatti as Anthony Russo, the man who went to prison on Ellsberg’s behalf.

Be forewarned: nowhere in this revisionist history will be audience be presented with the cast of Corsican drug smugglers and CIA agents that shaped Ellsberg’s sensibilities and sent him on his path to New Left notoriety. But as the reader shall see in this article, somewhere between the official Pentagon Papers story, and the CIA’s involvement in international drug trafficking, is a disturbing clash of facts from which Ellsberg will not emerge with his icon status intact.

Ellsberg And the Quiet American

The first thing the reader needs to know is that Ellsberg was not always a pacifist “dove” intent on ending the Vietnam War. At first he was an aggressive “hawk.” His militant approach to the Cold War ? he was all for nuking the Soviet Union ? was shaped during a tour of duty as a Marine lieutenant, and precisely because of his hard-line attitude, and his ability to articulate it, he was offered a job as a Defense Department analyst.

Then in 1965 he was assigned as a Pentagon observer to the CIA’s Revolutionary Development (RD) Program in South Vietnam. Here Ellsberg came under the influence of his mentor, CIA officer cum Air Force General Edward Lansdale. The mass murderer Graham Greene used as the model for Alden Pyle in “The Quiet American,” Lansdale was the architect of the CIA’s anti-terror strategy for winning the Vietnam War. When not engaged in typical RD Program “Civil Affairs” activities, such as helping the local Vietnamese build perimeter defenses around their villages, Ellsberg and his fellow RD advisors, under the tutelage of Lansdale, dressed in black pajamas and reportedly slipped into enemy areas at midnight to “snatch and snuff” the local Viet Cong cadre, sometimes making it appear as if the VC themselves had done the dirty deed, in what Lansdale euphemistically called “black propaganda” activities.

Functioning as a gruesome “shadow warrior” was not Ellsberg’s only claim to fame in South Vietnam. It will not be addressed in the TV docudrama, but Ellsberg was exceedingly charming and possessed with the uncanny ability to reproduce conversations verbatim–talents that made him a highly prized asset of John Hart, the CIA station chief in Saigon. Hart and the CIA’s foreign intelligence staff wanted to know what influential Vietnamese citizens and officials were privately thinking, and plotting, so they introduced Ellsberg into Saigon’s elite social circles, and he began reporting directly to station chief John Hart on matters of political importance.

And if what his CIA colleagues say is true, Ellsberg was not only as a superb spy, he was also as a swashbuckling swordsman who romanced numerous women, including the exquisite Germaine. One part French and three parts Vietnamese, Germaine was the object of every red-blooded American man’s desire, and when Ellsberg met her at a swinging Saigon party, the hot-blooded cocksman immediately rose to the occasion, heedless of the fact that she was engaged to an opium-addicted Corsican drug smuggler named Michel Seguin.

It is here, with Ellsberg’s love affair with Germaine, that the discrepancy between fact and fiction has its origins. According to Professor McCoy, at the time Ellsberg met Germaine, Ellsberg’s close friend, CIA officer Lucien Conein, was negotiating a “truce” with the Corsican gangsters who supplied South Vietnam’s top military officers and government officials with that most lucrative of black market commodities, heroin.

Ellsberg’s Perilous Peccadilloes

Legendary CIA officer Lou Conein was an Old Vietnam Hand. As a member of Detachment 202 of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), Conein had fought with the French Special Forces in Indochina in World War II. After the war he married a Vietnamese woman and remained in Vietnam. He joined the CIA upon its creation and after a tour of duty in Europe, he returned to South Vietnam in 1954, as an aide to the aforementioned Ed Lansdale, to help organize the CIA’s anti-communist forces in North Vietnam. As a measure of his knack for deceit and deception, it is worth noting that one of Conein’s favorite “dirty tricks” was “to stage funerals without a corpse, and bury the coffin filled with weapons for later use by the anti-communists.”1

“Black Luigi” Conein departed South Vietnam in 1958 after Lansdale had safely ensconced his Catholic prot?g?, Ngo Dinh Diem, as President of South Vietnam. Conein spent the next few years in the opium rich outlands of Iran as a military advisor to the Shah’s special forces. In 1962 he returned to Vietnam as a “floating emissary,” reporting directly to the Kennedy White House, while secretly coaching the cabal of generals that murdered President Diem and his opium-addicted brother Nhu on 2 November 1963.

After the bloody coup d’etat, Conein remained in South Vietnam, but not without further controversy. As noted, professor McCoy contends that Ellsberg and Conein formed a fast friendship at the exact same moment Conein was arranging a “truce” between the CIA and unnamed Corsican drug smugglers in Saigon.

Conein, however, adamantly denied the allegation that he arranged a drug-related “truce.” In a 1972 letter to McCoy’s publisher, he insisted that his meeting with the Corsicans, “had to do with ameliorating a tense situation engendered by Daniel Ellsberg’s peccadilloes with the mistress of a Corsican.”

Here we return to enchantress Germaine, her opium-addicted Corsican fianc?, Michel Seguin, and a new character in our passion play, Frank Scotton. In 1965 Scotton was ostensibly employed by the U.S. Information Service, though his undercover job as a CIA officer was forming assassination squads around Saigon in what was the prototype of the CIA’s infamous Phoenix Program. Through this experimental “counter-terror” program, which fell under Lansdale’s RD Program, Scotton and Ellsberg met and became the best of friends. In fact, it was Scotton who invited Ellsberg to the party where the fateful encounter with Germaine occurred.

What happened next is subject to conjecture–and it must be emphasized that in order to understand how the Discrepancy might occur, the reader must need be aware that rumors, whisper campaigns, and half-truths are the preferred weapons of political warriors. CIA dirty tricks and deceptions are meant to misdirect and discredit, so one must examine these statements closely to discover what is being concealed, and why. Complicating the already convoluted situation is the fact that Ellsberg’s closest friends, Lou Conein and Frank Scotton, were CIA officers. Which is not meant to cast guilt through association on Ellsberg, but it is intended to warn the reader that one must carefully study their conflicting stories.

Scotton and Conein, in separate interviews with this writer, claimed they warned Ellsberg to sever his relationship with Germaine. But Ellsberg, they said, would not be kept from his lover’s embrace. Scotton and Conein claimed that Michael Seguin hired a Vietnamese assassin to kill Ellsberg, but, they said, they were able to intercept the assassin before he could carry out his contract.

In an interview with this writer, Ellsberg admitted to having had the affair with Germaine, and he confessed that Seguin put a gun to his head and warned him to stay away from the woman they both cherished. But Ellsberg vehemently denied that either Scotton or Conein intervened on his behalf. Their stories, he said, were standard CIA disinformation, designed to make him seem beholden to former CIA comrades, and thus cast doubt on his motives for leaking The Pentagon Papers.

Ulterior Motives

Theoretically, it seems logical to conclude that one of the conflicting stories hides an ulterior motive. And in a search of the recorded history of the time, there is only one source that sheds any light on the situation. All we know, according to Professor McCoy, is that CIA agent Lou Conein met with Corsican gangsters to arrange a “truce” regarding drug smuggling in South Vietnam, and that after this “truce” the Corsicans (including, one would presume, Michel Seguin) continued to serve as “contact men” for the CIA in the drug smuggling business.

This is where The Discrepancy reaches critical mass, for Ellsberg denies that his CIA mentor, Edward Lansdale, or his CIA friends, Lou Conein and Frank Scotton, were involved with Corsican drug smugglers.

Recapping: McCoy claims that Conein arranged a” truce” with the Corsican gangsters over drug smuggling in South Vietnam; Conein denied the allegation and said the meeting concerned Ellsberg’s affair with Germaine; and Ellsberg denies (1) that Conein and Scotton intervened on his behalf, and (2) that Conein, Lansdale and Scotton were involved with drug smugglers.

Who is telling the truth? Could a CIA officer with a photographic memory not be aware that his colleagues were involved with drug smugglers? Or is McCoy’s research fatally flawed? Did the alleged “truce” occur? Was the good professor, who has prompted so many people to question the CIA’s role in international drug smuggling, misled by dirty trickster Conein. Was the ulterior motive to move McCoy toward the Corsicans and away from the CIA’s unilateral drug smuggling operation? Thinking the Unthinkable

It was 1970 when the mainstream American press first reported the CIA’s involvement in international drug trafficking, and it was 1970 when the U.S. Senate launched a potentially explosive investigation into the CIA’s Phoenix “assassination” Program, a special unit of which was providing security for the CIA’s unilateral drug smuggling operation.

The House of Representatives launched deeper probes into CIA drug smuggling and the CIA’s Phoenix Program in early 1971, and, naturally, the CIA at this critical time took extensive countermeasures in a concerted effort to conceal these facts. What is relevant to the discrepancy is the that in June 1971, Daniel Ellsberg leaked the aptly named Pentagon Papers, shifting blame for the increasingly unpopular Vietnam War from the CIA to the military, while distracting public attention from the investigations of the CIA’s Phoenix Program and the CIA’s involvement in drug smuggling.

Ellsberg is aware of the rumor that Conein and Scotton asked him to leak the Pentagon Papers as part of the CIA’s disinformation campaign. But he shrugs off the insidious rumor as yet another instance of ? CIA disinformation designed to cast doubt on his motives for leaking The Pentagon Papers.

While it is definitely politically incorrect within what passes nowadays for the New Left to even make the suggestion, is it unthinkable that Ellsberg might have suffered such a whisper campaign in order to prevent his CIA friends from being indicted for drug smuggling and mass murder?

The Politics Of Heroin (And War Crimes) In America

After Ellsberg leaked The Pentagon Papers, the CIA’s plot to cover-up its unilateral drug smuggling operation moved forward with greater gusto. According to the Justice Department’s still classified DeFeo Report, Conein in the spring of 1971 was called out of retirement by CIA officer E. Howard Hunt and asked to become an advisor to President Nixon’s “drug czar” (and Plumber) Egil Krogh, on matters regarding “problems of narcotic control in Southeast Asia and the Pentagon Papers.”

Consider that in 1971 the relationship between the French intelligence service and Corsican drug smugglers in its employ was exposed after a series of spectacular drug busts made in America with the assistance of the CIA. Concurrently, Conein was called out of retirement and immediately, in June 1971, told McCoy about the “truce” with the French-connected Corsicans, one of who put a gun to Ellsberg head.

Consider also that Egil Krogh’s investigators stumbled upon the CIA’s unilateral drug smuggling operation at this time, and that in July 1971, President Nixon declared the burgeoning war on drugs to be a matter of national security. Nixon went after the CIA and quick as a flash, E. Howard Hunt (Conein’s comrade from OSS Detachment 202) bungled the bugging of the Watergate Hotel. Washington Post reporter and former Naval Intelligence officer Bob Woodward, then assigned to cover Nixon’s war on drugs, was approached by the still anonymous Deep Throat, and based on unsubstantiated rumors, incrementally engendered the Watergate scandal and effectively neutralized Nixon, and his war on drugs.

In the summer of 1972 came the publication of McCoy’s book, which implicated the CIA in Corsican drug smuggling operation in Thailand, Vietnam, Burma and Laos. But no CIA officer was ever indicted for drug smuggling. In fact, the CIA boasted that it was actually helping, by infiltrating the Corsican operation, to wage the war on drugs. Amazing as it may sound, McCoy’s exposure in 1972 of the French Connection drug smuggling operation also helped to divert public attention from the CIA’s unilateral drug smuggling operations.

That same summer of 1972, Lou Conein became a consultant to the newly created Office of National Narcotics Intelligence (ONNI) at the Department of Justice. After the Drug Enforcement Administration was formed in July 1973, Conein became chief of a special operations unit that in 1975 was investigated by the U.S. Senate for the dubious distinction of assassinating drug lords.

The Pentagon Papers, Drugs, and Political Assassinations

Today only questions remain. Why did Conein meet the Corsicans in 1965? Was the rumor of an assassination attempt on Ellsberg concocted to provide Conein with a plausible cover story for his “truce” with the drug smuggling Corsicans? If so, why does Ellsberg deny that his CIA comrades, Lansdale, Conein and Scotton, were involved in drug smuggling, as McCoy contends? And, finally, was McCoy deliberately led by Conein in a wide circle around the CIA’s unilateral drug smuggling operation?

Unless these questions are resolved, the truth about Watergate and the Pentagon Papers will continue to elude historians, and this quiet discrepancy will serve, like the TV movie based on Ellsberg’s autobiography, only to perpetuate the myths, mysteries, and half-truths that define American history–a history that hauntingly reflects standard CIA operating procedures.

DOUGLAS VALENTINE is the author of The Hotel Tacloban, The Phoenix Program, and TDY. His new book The Strength of the Wolf: the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, 1930-1968 will be published by Verso. Valentine was an investigator for Pepper on the King case in 1998-1999. For information about Valentine and his books and articles, please visit his website at www.douglasvalentine.com (http://www.douglasvalentine.com).

He can be reached at: redspruce@attbi.com

Valentine’s last article for CounterPunch was: An Act of State: the Assassination of Martin Luther King

https://www.brasscheck.com/video/what-the-pentagon-papers-were-really-all-about/

https://www.counterpunch.org/2003/03/08/will-the-real-daniel-ellsberg-please-stand-up/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 25, 2018, 02:38:09 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Russia sends Trump a message (while Trump plays finger pointing games in the US).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

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Russian Defence Ministry

Watch: Russian Nuclear Submarine Rapid-Fires Four Ballistic Missiles

May 23, 2018 by gCaptain


The Russian Defense Ministry has released video of nuclear-powered Borei-class submarine test firing a barrage of four Bulava missiles from below the surface.

The test was conducted on Tuesday from a submerged location in a designated area of the White Sea, located off the northwest coast of Russia. The Ministry said the missiles were launched against targets at the Kura shooting range on the Kamchatka Peninsula.

The test, which was conducted using the nuclear submarine Yuri Dolgorukiy, marked the first-ever salvo fire from this type of submarine, the Ministry said.

https://youtu.be/2lieScUjn_g


The footage published on Wednesday shows some pre-launch activities on board the submarine before it is shown firing four missiles in quick succession.

“The test confirmed combat readiness of the Project-955 Borei SSBN and the Bulava missile system,” the Defence Ministry stated.

The full-length version of the test is below:

https://youtu.be/VUdIUdouLv0



http://gcaptain.com/watch-russian-nuclear-submarine-rapid-fires-four-ballistic-missiles/ (http://gcaptain.com/watch-russian-nuclear-submarine-rapid-fires-four-ballistic-missiles/)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 25, 2018, 08:43:03 pm
Trump-Jong Un Meeting Cancelled, But Can the Talks Survive?

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May 24, 2018

Denuclearization, Libyan model, military exercises, and criticism in South Korea, we discuss it all with columnist James Dorsey, in Singapore

https://youtu.be/zfgQcdPut-4

https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-jong-un-meeting-cancelled-but-can-the-talks-survive
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 30, 2018, 01:05:47 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)

Agelbert NOTE: More of the above brinkmanship stupidity from the Trump 🦀 wrecking crew. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c)

A poster named Jtrillian tells it like it is. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

(https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/b67d7cea-62fe-11e8-82ea-2acc56ad2bf7_1320x770_063300_0.JPG?itok=miDcr-dr)
Quote
Jtrillian Wed, 05/30/2018 - 11:13 Permalink
So much for the POTSDAM DECLARATION.

Those Islands are China's.  They belonged to China prior to Japan taking them in WWII.  They were returned to China in the terms dictated in the above mentioned agreement as part of Japans unconditional surrender.

But hey, when has any agreement that we signed ever stopped us from making war?

China has a valid claim to the islands.  The US government is trying to provoke the sleeping dragon into a war.  Be careful what you wish for... you just might get it.


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potsdam_Declaration

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spratly_Islands


(https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/847eb37c-62c1-11e8-82ea-2acc56ad2bf7_image_hires_063300_0.JPG?itok=O5WWgKpK)

Quote
“We are going out of our way to cooperate with Pacific nations, that’s the way we do business in the world,” Mattis 🦀 told reporters. “But we are also going to confront what we believe is out of step with international law, out of step with international tribunals that have spoken on the issue.”

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fmemecrunch.com%2Fmeme%2F5L3XX%2Fspiderman-bullshit-detector%2Fimage.jpg%3Fw%3D544%26amp%3Bc%3D1&hash=4825835b92337d62f61a3d37d282105e97ac3ee3)

The above is from the article linked below:

Wed, 05/30/2018 Mattis: US Will Confront China With "Steady Drumbeat" Of American Ships Over Weaponized Islands (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-30/mattis-us-will-confront-china-steady-drumbeat-amerian-ships-over-weaponized-islands)

Agelbert analysis: Friends, to the too clever by a half Trump wrecking crew, this is not about war.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.coh2.org%2Fimages%2FSmileys%2Fhuhsign.gif&hash=3732d0427be65896527fc3805c5be54a33cffd3b) That's right. sports fans.

THIS is about the silly posturing blustering bravado Trump's ghost writer talked about in the "Art of the Deal". It is no accident that Mattis 🦍 is making all these noises just as the US trade team is scheduled to arrive in China.

The Chinese, who are experts in this sort of thing, are probably laughing all over themselves by this crude and thoroughly pedestrian attempt to get China to swallow some US tariffs without retaliating big time. Trump does absolutely everything he can to insult both the North Koreans and the Chinese so he can get them into the "negotiating position" Trump wants. (https://i.imgflip.com/eghas.jpg)

Trump totally missed the memo on Face Saving in these cultures. The only thing Trump has accomplished is to strengthen their resolve to RETALIATE economically BECAUSE they have LOST FACE! Trump thinks he has "softened them up" with threats before he turns on the charm (📢 THAT DOES NOT WORK WITH THE CHINESE or the North Koreans!).

Trump is cornered by China on trade. THAT is what this is REALLY all about. The US, due to its trading account imbalance, NEEDS Chinese products more than they need ours. China can EASILY destroy what is left of our asset stripped and impoverished economy while maintaining a market for its products in other countries.

Sure, Turmp knows that. But the only thing Trump understands is winning by intimidation. That DOES NOT WORK with China (or anyone with half a brain when dealing with a country with a reputation for ignoring/breaking treaties like the USA).

China inderstands the USA better than the USA does. The USA is ALL ABOUT MONEY. So, expect China to REALLY put the tariff heat on our exports now (this will negatively impact our economy FAR AND WIDE, not just the grain exports).

This will hit the banksters that run the USA in the wallet, where their god is.

This will severly impact tthe stock market.

This will bring down the Trump wrecking crew.

(https://imageproxy.themaven.net/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fmaven-user-photos%2Fmishtalk%2Feconomics%2FzmfATcSa4EegwR7v_znq6Q%2FnM1QjRXyDE66qd63g7kC6g?w=993&q=75&h=725&auto=format&fit=crop)

The problem is that the Trump 🦀 wrecking crew😈🦕👹🦖🦍  is so STUCK on their "(F)Art of the Deal" ideology, that they might just start a shooting war 💣 if they see that their too clever by a half FArt of the Deal intimidation maneuvers resulted in the following:

1) they FAILED to make China back down

2) The USA becoming the economic and military laughing stock of the world

3) Political GOP disaster in the midterms due to a cratering market and economy.


Read the following story between the lines. Please consider what I have written in regard to the Chinese modus operandi. If you work for the Trump wrecking crew, please get your "Art of the Deal" mafia head out of your ass and stop this insane brinkmanship before you end up wishing you had never been born.

War Erupts Between Trump's🦀
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201903.png&hash=f7b1f3e1f363fe16e0e17f9c2d82b60fa83b8731) Two Top (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418201722.png&hash=5299cc10ee42beae76e4d3b7c79dbf5f4c0addac) Trade Advisors 😈 👹  Over China

by Tyler Durden

Wed, 05/30/2018 - 10:14

Commenting on the latest, surprise escalation in the US-China trade ceasefire war, in which Trump unexpectedly announced 25% tariffs on up to $50BN in Chinese imports, prompting a fresh round of outrage and confusion in Beijing which was confident it was done with Trump's "flip-flopping", we observed that "the latest move by Trump signals the more hawkish wing of Trump’s trade team is trying to amplify its hard line, after Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said this month that any talk of a trade war was suspended for now."

“Mnuchin’s ‘trade war on hold’ comments look to have been repudiated,” said Derek Scissors, a China analyst at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. “It may be the administration has shifted somewhat to appease the Congress on the lifting of the ZTE sanctions.”

Which, we concluded, begs the question:

is China trade hawk dragon Peter Navarro back in Trump's good graces, and if so, is the countdown to Mnuchin's resignation officially on?

Then just moments later, none other than Peter Navarro himself confirmed that there may be another major battle behind the scenes, when in a rare public rebuke of Steven Mnuchin, Navarro - who the media recently relegated to D-grade advisor status when he was excluded from China talks after reportedly exploding at Mnuchin and Wilbur Ross two weeks ago - called Mnuchin's claim that the trade war with China was "on hold" an "unfortunate sound bite" and admitting that there’s a dispute that needs to be resolved.

“What we’re having with China is a trade dispute, plain and simple,” Navarro said in an interview broadcast Wednesday with National Public Radio. “We lost the trade war long ago" with deals such as Nafta and China’s entry into the World Trade Organization, he said.

"That was an unfortunate sound bite," says WH adviser Peter Navarro of Steven Mnuchin saying a trade war with China is "on hold." It's on hold no longer, though Navarro calls it a "trade dispute." More in this thread.https://t.co/m7oPSJWcTA @MorningEdition @npr

— Steve Inskeep (@NPRinskeep) May 30, 2018
Navarro also said that "we can stop them from putting our high tech companies out of business" and "buying up our crown jewels of technology.... Every time we innovate something new, China comes in and buys it or steals it."

Earlier this month, Mnuchin shocked markets and sent stocks surging after he said in a weekend televised interview that the prospect of a trade war with China was "on hold." It turns out, Mnuchin was merely saying whatever someone had told him to say.

The latest controversial remark from Navarro, who refuses to go gentle into that good night, came just days before U.S.  Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross is scheduled to meet with his counterparts in Beijing to discuss ways to reduce the U.S.’s trade deficit with China, and - as noted earlier - follows Trump's surprise announcement that the U.S. is moving ahead with plans to impose tariffs on $50 billion of Chinese imports and curb investment in sensitive technology.

The renewed tariff threats could stop the planned talks and jeopardize a deal, the WSJ reported on Wednesday, citing sources in both countries. A team of U.S. officials was scheduled to arrive in Beijing on Wednesday. Asked about potential Chinese retaliation, especially on American farm goods, Navarro said “we’re ready for anything.”

As for the implications of this growing trade advisor war in Trump's inner circle, two weeks ago Bill Blain wrote that "Mnuchin’s Name Is Now High On The Trump Deadpool List" and come to think of it, it has been a while since Trump fired anyone...

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-05-30/war-erupts-between-trumps-two-top-trade-advisors



Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 04, 2018, 02:58:53 pm
Agelbert and Palloy, listed alphabetically and not in order of importance  :laugh: ;D ::)

Would any or both of you gents care to comment on the Russian boasting of it's new weapons prowess a short while back.

It seemed like a bold threatening boast that was found believable by me of it's new superiority.

My reason for asking is the subsequent non reporting and totally ignoring of the boast both by the media and the rhetoric and threats from both parties namely Russia and The US as if nothing had even happened or mentioned, and the status quo seems to have remained the same.

It seemed, at least to me, as a massive restart of the nuclear arms race as well as making the new China,Russia alliance a much more potent military force, yet there is nary a word of it mentioned.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191404.bmp&hash=007a2c20b76f970316a559a6e27cfd70c11f5998)

You two gents seem to have an abundance of interest in these matter, Palloy from the political war wary area and AG from his recent revelation of his work in this area and aircraft expertise.

Did I read it wrong, did not Putin state he had the goods we could not intercept and issue a warning??
                                                                                              Thanks, GO
 

It is FAR crazier than you can imagine. The US and Russia are now in a new NUCLEAR arms race  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.emofaces.com%2Fen%2Femoticons%2Fn%2Fnuclear-emoticon.gif&hash=e4e4a2a7087fe69ad666bbc193626b4bf13857a8). Plutonium pits, those deadly little hollow balls of Plutonium that get injected with Tritium nano-seconds before a hydrogen bomb goes off, which we ALREADY have thhousands of sitting in warehouses in TEXAS, are now all the NEW THING to FUND in the Trump adminsitration. The new ones are a nuclear welfare queen operation to save Senator Graham's arse since the Mox making plant he championed has gone so far over budget that it had to be cancelled.

This new cold war is nuts. These are not just weapons of mass destruciton; they are weapons of GLOBAL destruction.

Hear all about it at Radio Echoshock:

Two Dangerous Myths Exposed
Posted on May 23, 2018, by Radio Ecoshock 📢

https://www.ecoshock.org/2018/05/two-dangerous-myths-exposed.html (https://www.ecoshock.org/2018/05/two-dangerous-myths-exposed.html)

Did you know about Putin's FABULOUSLY RICH daughters? Perhaps Palloy will do a bit of research and tell us all about them.  ;) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221017161839.png&hash=7d34712243960aa20883775dad728bc2115ed6fe) Between the Putins and Trumps, the corruption competition is fierce.   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6)

They may have to blow up the planet to see who is the biggest "apex Predator" among these empathy deficit disordered dynastic bunches.

Have a nice nuclear day.

(https://ae01.alicdn.com/kf/HTB1sLBdIXXXXXX1XXXXq6xXFXXXp/Free-Shipping-3-PiecesToxic-Nuclear-Toilet-Paper-Novelty-Printed-Zone-Radioactive-Napkin-Paper-Home-Toilet-Tissue.jpg_640x640.jpg)

 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-220815161550.png&hash=f95989290a4fca22333fc772d8abd90a6764d4d8)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 09, 2018, 08:40:59 pm
(https://jamesperloff.files.wordpress.com/2018/03/ghouta-victory.png)
Photo taken by Syrian Christian soldier after the liberation of Ghouta

A SYRIAN CHRISTIAN REVEALS WHAT IS REALLY HAPPENING IN SYRIA

Posted in Miscellaneous and tagged Al Nusra, Al Qaida, Bashar al-Assad, Daesh, ISIS, Israel, Middle East, moderate rebels, Syria, Syrian Christians, U.S. foreign policy, White Helmets on March 30, 2018.

By James Perloff  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.clker.com%2Fcliparts%2Fc%2F8%2Ff%2F8%2F11949865511933397169thumbs_up_nathan_eady_01.svg.hi.png&hash=599691109af22b33f1d59dd61eb97448a9427020)

SNIPPET:

“H” was born in Damascus, and legally immigrated to the United States from Syria more than 20 years ago, long before the current war began. She became a U.S. citizen and earned a doctor’s degree from an American university. She is completely fluent in both English and Arabic. She recently returned from a trip back to Syria, where she has many family members and friends who keep her apprised of the situation there. She is also one of the kindest and most devoted Christians I have ever met. I am keeping H’s name confidential, as I do not wish this interview to in any way jeopardize her family’s safety in Syria, or the status of her professional work in the U.S.

I originally anticipated that our discussion would be two-part; first I would give her a short primer on the back story of American politics. When we sat down, I told H that I have been a journalist since 1985. I began to explain that America is run by an oligarchy that conceals itself behind a façade of two-party democracy, that Presidential candidates have long been pre-selected, that Americans have been repeatedly deceived into wars, and that our press is controlled by the same establishment that controls the politicians. H was smiling, and I could swiftly tell that nothing I said was news to her. And so it was affirmed that what famed commentator “Syrian Girl” (whose Facebook and YouTube accounts have been censored) said is true: Syrians are well informed about the New World Order. Indeed, Syrians know more about the realities of American geopolitics than most Americans do. So, after about four minutes, I laughed, and told H that my “lecture” was over. I now asked her to tell me the truth about Syria. My questions are in normal font, her replies in bold. For this post, I have inserted some pictures and video that correlate with her comments.

Full eye opening interview with more pictures and video: 👀

https://jamesperloff.com/2018/03/30/a-syrian-christian-reveals-what-is-really-happening-in-syria/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 13, 2018, 05:47:22 pm
Trump Halts War Games, Floats Troop Pullout in Korea

June 13, 2018   

At the Singapore summit, President Trump announced a halt to U.S. war games on the Korean peninsula and said he wants to withdraw American troops. But if he does, he’ll face stiff resistance from Congress and Pentagon, warns author James Dorsey

https://youtu.be/51_lD9Nu9MY

https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-halts-war-games-floats-troop-pullout-in-korea

Can North Korea Believe Trump’s Promises?

June 12, 2018   

The United States has a history of not keeping its word. U.S. just withdrew from the Iran agreement, so why would the North Koreans believe the U.S. asks Tom Collina of the Ploughshares Fund

https://youtu.be/K4-DEh5Whh0

https://therealnews.com/stories/after-threatening-war-on-north-korea-can-trump-make-peace-2
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 17, 2018, 09:53:31 pm
Truthdig

JUN 10, 2018TD ORIGINALS

Scapegoating Iran 😠

By Chris Hedges

SNIPPET:

NEW YORK—Seventeen years of war in the Middle East and what do we have to show for it? Iraq after our 2003 invasion and occupation is no longer a unified country. Its once modern infrastructure is largely destroyed, and the nation has fractured into warring enclaves. We have lost the war in Afghanistan. The Taliban is resurgent and has a presence in over 70 percent of the country. Libya is a failed state. Yemen after three years of relentless airstrikes and a blockade is enduring one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters. The 500 “moderate” rebels we funded and armed in Syria at a cost of $500 million are in retreat after instigating a lawless reign of terror. The military adventurism has cost a staggering $5.6 trillion as our infrastructure crumbles, austerity guts basic services and half the population of the United States lives at or near poverty levels. The endless wars in the Middle East are the biggest strategic blunder in American history and herald the death of the empire.

Someone has to be blamed for debacles that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of dead, including at least 200,000 civilians, and millions driven from their homes. Someone has to be blamed for the proliferation of radical jihadist groups throughout the Middle East, the continued worldwide terrorist attacks, the wholesale destruction of cities and towns under relentless airstrikes and the abject failure of U.S. and U.S.-backed forces to stanch the insurgencies. You can be sure it won’t be the generals, the politicians such as George W. Bush, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton, the rabid neocons such as Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz and John Bolton who sold us the wars, the Central Intelligence Agency, the arms contractors who profit from perpetual war or the celebrity pundits on the airwaves and in newspapers who serve as cheerleaders for the mayhem.

“The failed policies, or lack of policies, of the United States, which violate international law, have left the Middle East in total chaos,” the Iranian ambassador to the United Nations, Gholamali Khoshroo, told me when we met in New York City. “The United States, to cover up these aggressive, reckless and costly policies, blames Iran. Iran is blamed for their failures in Yemen, Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria and Lebanon.”

Full truth filled article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/scapegoating-iran/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 18, 2018, 06:50:58 pm
STUDY WAR NO MORE 🕊

A Concerned Citizens Study & Action Guide for "A Global Security System: An Alternative to War"

(Discussion 7) Transition: From an Offensive to Defensive Posture

https://youtu.be/ltW_wXbDYXY

Get your copy!  💐

A Global Security System: an Alternative to War

The 2017 edition of A Global Security System: An Alternative to War (AGSS) is now available.

AGSS, World Beyond War’s effort to describe an alternative security system, is the primary resource for STUDY WAR NO MORE.

AGSS describes the “hardware” of creating a peace system, and the “software” — the values and concepts — necessary to operate a peace system and the means to spread these globally.

Read more and view more great videos:


http://globalsecurity.worldbeyondwar.org/discussion-7-transition-from-an-offensive-to-defensive-posture/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 18, 2018, 07:31:38 pm
I just took this quiz and did pretty well with it. This quiz is valuable because is shows how little the average American actually knows about why these wars happen and who gets killed in them. What I got right has a "✔" and what I got wrong has a red asterisk *.  The correct answer(s) are in bold.

Quiz: Beyond War 🕊

What tends to be present where war is? (Check all that apply.)

a) resource scarcity

b) human rights violations in need of response

c) raw fossil fuels

d) Islam  * (I picked this one too and should not have  :-[)

See documentation of c here.

See documentation of not a here.

B and D are non-plausible propaganda.

 

Nations are more likely to wage war if . . . (Check all that apply.) [THIS QUESTION NOT USED IN FACEBOOK VERSION DUE TO HAVING MULTIPLE ANSWERS]

a) they have militaries * (I didn't pick this one  :-[)


b) they spend more than other nations on their militaries ✔

c) their people accept that war is a legitimate tool of public policy


d) they’re great

See documentation of c here.

See evidence for a and b here.

 

The United States sells weapons to this percentage of the world’s dictatorships.

a) 0%

b) 12%

c) 52%

d) 73%

See documentation of d here.

 

The majority of those killed in modern wars are . . .

a) members of a military

b) terrorists

c) evil demons

d) civilians

It’s not even close. Some examples are here.

 

The majority of those killed with missiles from drones have been . . .

a) criminals

b) terrorists

c) suspect profiled individuals

d) unidentified

See documentation of d here.

 

What percentage of suicide terrorist attacks are aimed at getting a military to cease occupying a foreign country?

a) 4%

b) 27%

c) 39%

d) 95%

See documentation of d here.

 

What percentage of military bases on foreign soil are U.S. military bases?

a) 49%

b) 68%

c) 81%

d) 96%

See documentation of d here.

 

What percentage of global military spending could end starvation globally?

a) 1.5%

b) 3% *

c) 18%

d) 62%

See documentation of a here.

 

What percentage of the top 4 weapons dealers in the world are permanent members of the United Nations Security Council?

a) 0%

b) 25%

c) 50%

d) 100%

They are the United States, Russia, China, France. The U.K. does not always clearly hold fifth place, though it is always in the top 6 or 7. See documentation of d here.

 

People have signed World BEYOND War’s pledge to help end all war in how many countries?

a) 6

b) 44

c) 107

d) 158

https://worldbeyondwar.org/quiz/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 18, 2018, 09:12:14 pm
Far-Right 🦀 Wins Presidency in Colombia: ‘A Frightening Result’ 😨

June 18, 2018

Ivan Duque, who is the candidate of former president Alvaro Uribe, won a solid victory for Colombia’s presidency and will probably take Colombia back towards civil war and internal repression, with the help of the US and other conservative governments, argues Manuel Rozental, of PueblosEnCamino.org

Quote
Manuel Rozental

Emmanuel Rozental is a Colombian activist, physician, and practicing surgeon with more than 40 years’ involvement in grassroots political organizing with youth, indigenous peoples, and urban and rural movements. He has been exiled several times to Canada for political activities. Academic in social and political sciences, strategist with social movements throughout the Americas and beyond.


https://youtu.be/REr-kwtr-AQ

SNIPPET from video interview:

Quote
So our fear is now that Colombia is the spearhead of the U.S. policy for this continent. And the U.S. policy for this continent in economic terms is this: war actually is not a means to an end. The resources and territories that are needed are not only a means to an end. War is the end in itself.

The Middle Eastern wars have activated the economy and have improved the economy in the U.S. [Inaudible] that Colombia’s role is one of the Israel of Latin America. And what comes here is a model and a new phase, neoliberalism is left behind.

The new phase such as Colombia and Mexico for capital from the U.S., and pushed by, promoted by U.S. corporations and the Pentagon, is actually a, let’s call it a mafia-type capitalism which is, on the one hand, drug trafficking and drug mafias together with governments and corporations, and launching all types of wars constantly.

I am not trying to generate fear. I’m just showing the type of movements we’re seeing developing here.

https://therealnews.com/stories/far-right-wins-presidency-in-colombia-a-frightening-result
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 11, 2018, 08:07:09 pm
Growing Up in the USSR – RAI with A. Buzgalin (1/12)

July 11, 2018

Prof. Alexander Buzgalin (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) joins Paul Jay on Reality Asserts Itself; born two years after the death of Stalin, he talks about growing up in the Soviet Union

https://youtu.be/7RFc43mcIe8

Related Bios

Aleksandr Buzgalin

Aleksandr Buzgalin is a Professor of Political Economy at Moscow State University. He is also editor of the independent democratic left magazine Alternatives, and is a coordinator of the Russian social movement Alternatives, author of more then 20 books and hundreds of articles, translated into English, German and many other languages.

https://therealnews.com/stories/growing-up-in-the-ussr-rai-with-a-buzgalin-1-12
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 13, 2018, 09:24:59 pm
Communism and Consumerism – RAI with A. Buzgalin (3/12)

July 13, 2018

On Reality Asserts Itself, Prof. Alexander Buzgalin says that “market fetishism”, the hunger for commodities, became a major obstacle to building socialism – with host Paul Jay

https://youtu.be/c7ZPRzK8to4

Quote
Aleksandr Buzgalin is a Professor of Political Economy at Moscow State University. He is also editor of the independent democratic left magazine Alternatives, and is a coordinator of the Russian social movement Alternatives, author of more then 20 books and hundreds of articles, translated into English, German and many other languages.

https://therealnews.com/stories/communism-and-consumerism-rai-with-a-buzgalin-3-12
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 13, 2018, 09:51:36 pm
Congressional Progressive Caucus Challenge Party Leadership and Congress on Militarism and Foreign Policy

July 13, 2018

The little known Congressional Progressive Caucus🕊 is the largest caucus within the Democratic Party and has an important track record in calling attention to the highly interventionist and harmful foreign policy of the US, says CEPR’s Mark Weisbrot

https://youtu.be/N4lILDzN6NQ

https://therealnews.com/stories/congressional-progressive-caucus-challenge-party-leadership-and-congress-on-militarism-and-foreign-policy

Story Transcript

SHARMINI PERIES: It’s The Real News Network. I’m Sharmini Peries, coming to you from Baltimore.

As president Trump concluded his participation in a NATO summit this week, he called for a doubling of NATO members’ military spending, from a target of 2 percent of GDP by 2024, to 4 percent of GDP. In effect, Trump is proposing even greater militarization of world affairs, both at home and within NATO.There are, however, members of Congress who have recently been pushing back against the militarization and interventionism of US foreign policy. People such as Representatives Ro Khanna, Mark Pocan, Keith Ellison, Raul Grijalva, Barbara Lee, among many others. They are all members of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, or CPC. This caucus is generally not that well known, but with 78 members, ( including Bernie Sanders in the Senate) it is the largest Democratic Party caucus. It was founded in 1991 and has grown steadily in size since then. It takes positions on both foreign and domestic policy that tend to be significantly to the left of the party as a whole.Joining me to discuss the foreign policy work of Congressional Progressive Caucus and its individual members is Mark Weisbrot. Mark is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and is the author of the book, “Failed: What the ‘Experts’ Got Wrong About the Global Economy.” Thanks for joining us again, Mark.

MARK WEISBROT: Thanks, Sharmini, and thanks for doing this show. I think it’s a very important institution that hasn’t really gotten much attention.

SHARMINI PERIES: Thanks for that endorsement, Mark. Let’s start off by defining the Congressional Progressive Caucus. Who are they?

MARK WEISBROT: Yes. Well, it’s 70, around 76-77 members of Congress, all from the House except, as you mentioned, Bernie Sanders in the Senate. And they were formed to provide something of an alternative to a lot of the policies, both domestic and foreign policy, of some of the leadership of the Democratic Party, and turn it to the left of that.

SHARMINI PERIES: And Mark, what are the kinds of things that they are engaged in, and their past policy positions that are significant?

MARK WEISBROT: Well, they’ve taken a lot of positions on domestic issues that were always ahead, you know, on the budget, the monetary policy, the Federal Reserve and fiscal policy. What I think is most striking now, because we’re in a period where most of the foreign policy discussion is kind of retrograde, you know, even by U.S. foreign policy discussion standards, and they’ve taken consistently progressive positions on a whole variety of foreign policy issues. And I think that’s really important to see that there is this pull, because, you know, otherwise you could be really discouraged where you look. You know, you turn on the television and you look in the newspapers here, and all the debates are about various enemies around the world. And even, and you have this special period now where I think, because so much of the leadership and a significant part of the base of the Democratic Party, which would normally be taking a less-hawkish position on foreign policy, has become the more aggressive and interventionist part-.

SHARMINI PERIES: Mark, the Caucus has taken some really important positions that we’ve covered here at The Real News, like that of Yemen, and Brazil, and Syria. Give us some of those policy positions that-. You have actually worked on some of them, on the Hill.

MARK WEISBROT: Yes. Well, the issue of Yemen and the war in Yemen led by Saudi Arabia and the UAE, and supported militarily by the U.S., you know, in terms of refueling Saudi planes and selecting targets. And this is an actual participation of the United States in the war, and it’s unconstitutional. It’s against the law. You know, Article 1, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution reserves to Congress the power to decide on U.S. military intervention. It isn’t just declaring war, as you might, as some people read it. It actually, if you look at the legislative history, it really is any kind of military or paramilitary intervention, for that matter. That’s what the framers of the Constitution were describing when they put that in.

And so the Congress has that power, and it just hasn’t asserted it enough. This is the law of the land. And so this war is unauthorized and illegal under the Constitution. So what the Progressive Caucus and various members of the Progressive Caucus did in November of last year is they invoked the 1973 War Powers Resolution, which didn’t, you know, reinterpret the Constitution, but gave the Congress another way, a procedural way, of enforcing the constitutional power that they have. So it said that they could any member of Congress, when the U.S. was involved in hostilities overseas without the authorization of Congress, they could actually demand a debate and vote on that military involvement, and that the leadership of the House couldn’t block it. And so that’s what they did. And in the House there was some negotiation, but a resolution did pass. And it didn’t say that the U.S. had to withdraw, but it did recognize that the participation of the United States in this war was unauthorized.

And then they came back to the Senate in February. And it was a resolution-. By the way, these resolutions were sponsored not only by progressive members of Congress and Bernie Sanders in the Senate, but also by more conservative legislators who just believe in the Constitution, like Mike Lee of Utah in the Senate, and in the House there was Walter Jones and Thomas Massie. And so in the Senate, that vote was defeated, but they got, they got 44 votes for it. And it was the first time that the War Powers Resolution of 1973, which came out of the Vietnam War, was used to force that vote.

And I think this is very important for several reasons. First of all for this war, because this is the worst humanitarian crisis in the world. You have a million people who have gotten cholera from the destruction of water supplies in the bombing. And you had thousands of people die from that. And you have 8 million people on the brink of starvation. And so this isn’t over. And in fact, there’s negotiations going on right now with a U.N. envoy, and there’s some hope that there actually will be a settlement. And some more conservative members of Congress like Steny Hoyer and Eliot Engle, more conservative Democrats, they have even moved, and said to the Saudis in a letter recently that, you know, this is enough, and this has to stop, and you should negotiate a solution. And that’s because of this effort, because they use this power that the Congress has always had, but not used, to actually, you know, stop the, to try and stop this U.S. intervention. And they know, these other legislators know that this actually can be done. They can keep coming back with this, and they’re going to. They’re going to come back, and they can get a vote.

And the final thing I’ll say about this, because I think it’s so important, is it’s a structural change that the Progressive Caucus and people like Ro Khanna, Rep. Ro Khanna from Silicon Valley in California, that are leading this effort. Mark Polkan from the Progressive, co-chair of the Progressive Caucus. This, if they continue this, down this path, which I’m very certain they will, this will be a structural change. Because this will now, if you look at the whole history of the United States, there are very few wars where the Congress was leading the charge. It’s, you know-. So this will help prevent a lot of wars in the future as the Congress reasserts its constitutional authority. So that’s very, very big.

SHARMINI PERIES: Now, Mark, the Congressional Progressive Caucus, or CPC, as it’s known, is currently the largest Democratic Party caucus with 78 members, which includes Bernie Sanders from Senate. Now, however, only about-. This only constitutes 15 percent of all the 535 members of the House and Senate. Now, given the size, just how much impact can they have, how effective can they possibly be?

MARK WEISBROT: Well, the example I gave was very important because they’re changing the rules of the game. They’re actually, they’re just enforcing the rules of the game, and therefore changing, changing them. But also on other issues they have a voice where nobody can really push back against. And so when it gets in the news and it gets in the news in other countries-. So for example, there’s a letter circulating in Congress now from progressive members on Brazil, because of, you know, in Brazil they’ve got the leading presidential candidate, former President Lula da Silva is in jail right now. And it’s become more and more obvious that this is because, not because he committed a crime for which they did not present material evidence at his trial, but also, but really because he’s the leading candidate and he would win in October. And you know, you get very little real information about this in the news. But these kind of letters, they make the news. If the reporters ignore them here, which they don’t always, they make the news in Brazil. So they have an influence there, and it shows that there is this force that really is, is pushing for a different foreign policy.

And they’ve had similar letters, you know, for other countries, as well. A number of letters on Honduras, for example, when they, with the help of the United States and support of the United States, the Honduran government stole the election in November, and they came out with letters and statements about that. If you look at the election of AMLO in Mexico that just happened, the statement on that was very positive, and it went against the, all the punditry and the most of the media coverage by agreeing with AMLO on his foreign policy, where he wants a more peaceful and non-interventionist foreign policy in the hemisphere. In other words, they’re not going to support like they did, they’re not going to support the United States like they did in the Honduran election, where they came out in favor of recognizing their election, then the U.S. pretended to follow them, after the U.S. had already asked them, the U.S. government had already asked them to do that.

Now, those are the kind of things that they’re not going to do. And the Progressive Caucus will be supporting them while everybody, you read all the opinion leaders in the newspaper are worried, and saying bad things about AMLO, because he’s not lining up with U.S. foreign policy in the hemisphere. And I think what they can do is provide a progressive vision, but not just a vision like an intellectual or a professor can do, but a vision that they’re actively implementing. So it’s far outsized in relation to its percentage of the Congress, because this is, after all, these are positions that the vast majority of Americans would agree with and do agree with, and they’re not represented because of the hegemony of this foreign policy establishment, which includes the government and the media. And this is especially true in Latin America where you see almost no dissent at all, so it’s almost monolithic.

SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Mark. Now, to tie all of this back to my introduction, which was about Trump’s presence at NATO, and calling for more spending on the part of NATO members, just a few weeks ago the U.S. House passed the 2019 Defense Authorization Bill, allocating $717 billion to the Pentagon. What is the Congressional Progressive Caucus’ position regarding military spending, particularly given just yesterday the House actually reinstated their commitment to NATO?

MARK WEISBROT: Well, the caucus members, I mean, the people that are leading this effort, especially in the Progressive Caucus, are definitely for less military spending. Bernie Sanders has, of course, said this publicly, but also Ro Khanna and other members of the Progressive Caucus. So they’re definitely on the record on this issue, and they are also against, you know, what a lot of the military spending is used for, which is regime change. And that’s a very important position that they’ve taken, as well. Even in Venezuela, for example, where you don’t have any, very little dissent at all against the regime change effort that is currently underway led by the U.S. government. You have opposition, again, from the Progressive Caucus.

So yeah, they’re presenting a consistent view of a positive foreign policy. It’s not isolationist, but it’s against the destructive things that our foreign policy is doing around the world.

SHARMINI PERIES: All right, Mark. Great discussion. I thank you so much for joining us today.

MARK WEISBROT: Thank you.

SHARMINI PERIES: And thank you for joining us here on The Real News Network.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 16, 2018, 08:07:21 pm
Growing Up in the USSR – RAI with A. Buzgalin (1/12)
https://youtu.be/7RFc43mcIe8

Success and Mutation in the Soviet Union – RAI with A. Buzgalin (2/12)
https://youtu.be/bpxHlgs779k

Communism and Consumerism – RAI with A. Buzgalin (3/12)
https://youtu.be/c7ZPRzK8to4

Turning Power into Money, the End of the Soviet Union – RAI with A. Buzgalin (4/12)
https://youtu.be/BmVKq57O9Qc


“I Returned from Vacation to Find the Soviet Union had Collapsed” – RAI with A. Buzgalin (5/12)

July 16, 2018

On Reality Asserts Itself, Prof. Alexander Buzgalin says that he returned from a vacation in the countryside to find Gorbachev was arrested, Yeltsin was leader and the Soviet Union was no more – with host Paul Jay

https://youtu.be/xxVZE4Fx8EY

Aleksandr Buzgalin is a Professor of Political Economy at Moscow State University. He is also editor of the independent democratic left magazine Alternatives, and is a coordinator of the Russian social movement Alternatives, author of more then 20 books and hundreds of articles, translated into English, German and many other languages.

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome back to Reality Asserts Itself on The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay, and we’re continuing our discussion with Professor Alexander Buzgalin. Thanks for joining us again.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: I’m glad to be here and to talk with you.

PAUL JAY: I should say, we’re in New York City, this is not our normal studio. One more time, Professor Buzgalin teaches political economy and is Director of the Center for Modern Marxist Studies at Moscow State University. So, we got ourselves up to- you’re now on the Central Committee in your early thirties-

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: And the Soviet Union is nearly collapsed.

PAUL JAY: And they’re blaming you for it. Well, they certainly did blame Gorbachev for it, and we’re talking about, you were saying that there’s a rise within the party and within the party leadership of people who want to get rich, who had kind of given up on the socialist ideals. I guess they either decided it isn’t working or didn’t matter because they want to get rich. And while the internal factors may have been the most important, the Americans are very active in all this. Their dream is to bring down the Soviet Union. Talk about that period, and you have a very unique viewpoint, being on the Central Committee.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: So, first of all, it was really an extremely contradictory situation, because from one hand, we had the growth of social creativity from below. We had the first attempts to build self-management in the enterprises. And the most that did it were people in big scientific production complexes. We had, in Soviet Union, like corporations, where we had research centers, production, social infrastructure, and so on. And typically, these groups, these classic corporations, had very skilled people and they had big intentions. And it was all Soviet Union council of worker’s collectives. A very interesting structure. And the last Congress, with one thousand delegates, where they participated, was very strong and important. And it’s not a well-known part of the story of the Soviet Union.

We had good interest in initiative of the young generation to build, on a cooperative basis, new houses for the life. It was very interesting initiatives in the Green Movement, which appeared from below, and so on and so forth. At the same time, from another hand, we had terrible growth of contradictions because criminal business, which existed in Soviet Union, became stronger because of the whole destruction of the institutional system. Weak institutions led to the growth of shadow economy and criminal business. A lot of former directors of state enterprises were waiting, that it will be privatization, and were trying to steal as much as possible of the resources.

PAUL JAY: This is before-

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Just before collapse of the Soviet Union.

PAUL JAY: People see it coming. What’s Gorbachev doing about this? Or does he want this to-

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, and- he was talking. And this is one of the problems. You know, there is this definition of revolutionary situation by Lenin, and he wrote very important things. Revolution came when those who are on the top cannot be rulers more, according to the old model. So, this is a crisis of the top. And we had crisis.

PAUL JAY: Not fit to rule.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, not fit to rule. And people were trying to find another solution. And what was important, we had a lot of myths created with assistance of the West, but not by the West. One of them was a myth about market. And market, for majority of Soviet people, was associated with supermarket, with a lot of commodities. It was the strikes of the miners, a very interesting initiative from below, who wanted to change the situation. I participated in the Congress and the leader of the miner’s strike said, “We want to have capitalism, the factories will belong to the workers and not the Party and nomenklatura. We want to have capitalism, where we will have resources to buy whatever we want. We want to have capitalism, where everybody will have good apartments, and it will be no privileges of people who are rulers. We want to have capitalism where workers will decide what to do.”

PAUL JAY: They want to have capitalism without capitalists.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, without capitalists, without unemployment, without social stratification, and so on. It was an illusion. And unfortunately, it was created by many contradictions inside Soviet Union, which we discussed before. And main contradiction was interconnected with concentration of the power in the hands of bureaucracy, and the money of social creativity of the masses, and attempts to build consumer society, conformist society. Socialism cannot be conformist, consumer society. Socialism must move in the direction of self-organization, social creativity, anti-conformism, if you want. It should be disalienation, but not conservation of alienation in consumerist form. I’m sorry for this professor’s language, but I cannot express this in any other terms. So, that’s why we had internal contradictions as main factor of self-destruction of this system. And we had chances for the changes, but here, a subjective factor could play a decisive role. 

PAUL JAY: How do you get to a point, after years of bureaucratization- but something new enters the picture, because it’s not just bureaucratized, some mutation, of socialism. Now, people want to get rich and now people within the Party leadership and sections of the enterprises, within the elite, people have said enough, now we just want to cash in. How do you get to that?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: You already gave the answer, so I can say yes, you are right. And it was predictable. In the beginning of the Soviet Union, in writings of different people, from Mensheviks to Leon Trotsky, was made prognosis that if bureaucracy will have more and more power, and the control from below will be weak, social creativity will go down, the transformation of bureaucracy will be inevitable. They will have intention to transform themselves into the class of private owners who has both political power and economic power and no limitations, no frameworks.

Because even in bureaucratic period, in Brezhnev period of the Soviet Union, officials at the top had relatively small privileges. They had a lot of limits for their power and they had strong rules of the game. And so, the new generation who came, they wanted to have the same living standards as billionaires, as presidents and leaders of bourgeois countries. And that was main reason. Plus, as I said, decline, degradation of social creativity, led to the consumerism and conformism of majority of Soviet people. And conformism creates atmosphere where market system, capitalist system, is coming. It’s like a swamp where it’s impossible to have beautiful trees, where there will be only dirty grass and frogs.

PAUL JAY: So, talk about that period, the rise of Yeltsin and the last days of the Soviet Union.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: So, still this is a big question mark. What happens, why we had this artificial coup d’état, what was the role of Gorbachev, who was behind? I am not a person who has secret information, so I will not give special commands.

PAUL JAY: And we’re in 1991?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: It was August, 1991.

PAUL JAY: Where are you, what are you doing?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: I was in the vacation, so unfortunately, I could not participate in this process. I was in the countryside, in the forest, just to relax a little bit. It was my mistake. I didn’t think that it will be so quickly-

PAUL JAY: So, most of our audience doesn’t really know this story at all.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: So, in August, leaders of KGB and some other officials from the top said that Gorbachev is no more president of the Soviet Union. We have a special committee in emergency situations, and Gorbachev was formally arrested in his dacha in Crimea, where he was also on a rest. But then, they did nothing.

PAUL JAY: So, it’s essentially a coup.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: It was coup, but leaders of the military coup must arrest the opposition, after all. But they did nothing. Yeltsin came to the house where there was Parliament of Russian Federation, people were walking in the streets with protests.

PAUL JAY: And who is Yeltsin, why all of a sudden, Yeltsin? What’s the power behind Yeltsin?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Okay, so that’s another story. One year ago, he was elected as president of Russian Federation inside Soviet Union. Soviet Union had like states in the U.S., but with more powerful structure. It was republics, fifteen republics, and Russia was the biggest and in the center. And Yeltsin was elected as president of Russia. So, informally, he has not too big power, because republics inside Federation were not so powerful as central government. But when Gorbachev was arrested, Yeltsin became in Moscow a key person, according to official status. And all opposition came to Yeltsin to protect against coup. And it was both really democratic forces and pro-bourgeois, quasi-democratic forces.

PAUL JAY: To protect against a coup from whom?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: To protect Yeltsin against those who organized the coup d’état. KGB leaders organized-

PAUL JAY: To protect Yeltsin from the KGB?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: From the KGB, yes.

PAUL JAY: What did the KGB want?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: KGB wanted to stop transformation led by Gorbachev to rebuild Soviet Union. It’s also important to say that in Caucasus and in Baltic states, republics in that period, was growth of nationalism and ideas to become separate states, not states in the Soviet Union. So, the idea was, “we will use military force, we will keep Soviet Union, and all Gorbachev experiments, we will stop.” They said, “we will keep freedom of speech, but with limitations,” these organizers of the coup, “we will continue some market reforms.”

PAUL JAY: And this was mostly driven out of the KGB?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Some military leaders and a few people from- top officials from the Central Committee.

PAUL JAY: And they want to try to retain what’s left of the Soviet state.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah.

PAUL JAY: Yeltsin represents these “let’s get rich” factions inside.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, but these guys did nothing. They didn’t arrest Yeltsin.

PAUL JAY: Why? KGB knows how to arrest people.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yes, but they did nothing. There are different explanations. Again, I cannot explain this phenomenon, myself. One of the explanations was that Gorbachev decided to play a role of the person who is not responsible for this, and then came to power again with the assistance of the KGB, simply to beat Yeltsin, who became leader of opposition in that period. Another explanation was that they did not have a final agreement of what has to be done, these leaders of the coup. But really, nobody knows. It’s a very strange story, very strange.

PAUL JAY: So, this famous photograph and videos of Yeltsin on the tanks, what is that, then, what goes on there?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yes, it was a few tanks and some soldiers in Moscow. But they did nothing. They were standing in the streets and did nothing. And the two guys who were killed-

PAUL JAY: This is outside the parliament buildings?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Outside, yes. And two guys who were dead, officially, because tanks killed them- really nobody knows what happened in reality- but I think the tanks were going back from Moscow and they accidentally were- because it was crowded, and when they decided to move from the square, two persons were really killed. And then they were transformed into heroes.

PAUL JAY: So, the section of the KGB and army that arrested Gorbachev, they allowed Yeltsin to come to power. Why? Did they say, okay, we might as well get rich too?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Really, I don’t have an explanation, as I said. For me, this is still a big question mark, what’s happened. No idea. Only what I can say is it’s a total crisis of the power. And the only person who was decisive and aggressive was Yeltsin.

PAUL JAY: You’re on the Central Committee. Do they have an emergency meeting, or the Party just starts to fall apart?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: I didn’t have time to come back from this village. It’s Russia, it’s not so simple, even for a member of the Central Committee. When I was back, all was solved. And the Party also was paralyzed. It was total paralysis of legislative and executive organs. It was self-destruction of the elite.

PAUL JAY: So, you’re sitting in your cottage, on vacation- this is what, is it playing out for you on T.V.? I mean, do you know what’s going on?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: First of all, I didn’t have any information. On T.V., it was on barely. The whole time only barely and nothing else. When I received- telephone was not working. It was a real village, and it was one telephone three kilometers from this place. So, when I found this telephone, I could not reach anybody in Moscow. So, after one day, I went to the regional center and received, more or less, information. But when I was back in Moscow, it was nothing.

PAUL JAY: Were you surprised or expecting it?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: No, I was very surprised, of course. And I was afraid that something like that can happen, but not coup. I was afraid that it will be coup organized by republican leaders, Yeltsin and leaders of the Baltic Republics, Caucasus Republics, and so on.

PAUL JAY: And you don’t think the KGB was actually in cahoots with Yeltsin?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: I don’t think so. I think what was real- the only hypothesis which I can propose is the following; it was informal, indirect, not final agreement with Gorbachev, and Gorbachev, it was his personal problem. He was not decisive. He could not make exact decisions, he was changing decisions very often. And he doesn’t know what has to be done. And he was a very weak leader, and for such periods, it’s necessary to have a strong leader, because personality, in the period of revolution, plays a big role, bigger than usual. In a stable system, personality is not important, or nearly not important. In the period of revolutions, strong personality and strong political organization is very important if this personality is on the top.

PAUL JAY: Well, in the next segment, we’ll pick up. You come back from vacation, and it’s not the Soviet Union, it’s Russia.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, the Soviet Union is absent, the Communist Party is absent, and the whole situation is completely new, yes.

PAUL JAY: All right, so join us for the next segment of our interview with Professor Buzgalin on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/i-returned-from-vacation-to-find-the-soviet-union-had-collapsed-rai-with-a-buzgalin-5-12
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 22, 2018, 07:07:32 pm
Is Putin’s Rule a Dictatorship? – RAI with A. Buzgalin (8/12)

July 22, 2018

On Reality Asserts Itself, Prof. Alexandr Buzgalin says while Putin heads a powerful state, this is not a system of one man rule; more than 100 billionaires and a stratum of top bureaucrats have political power – with host Paul Jay

https://youtu.be/rbz_bJTXvAk

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome to the Real News Network, welcome to Reality Asserts Itself, I’m Paul Jay. As you can see, we’re continuing our discussion in a new studio, but we’re still in New York City with Dr. Alexander Buzgalin.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Thank you.

PAUL JAY: Professor Buzgalin teaches political economy and is director of the Center for Modern Marxist Studies at Moscow State University. So, we’re going to pick up where we left off. You go on vacation for a lovely little August and you get away from it all, and you come back, you’re on the central committee, youngest member, I guess, maybe in history, I don’t know, of the communist party. You’re amongst the most powerful people in the county. And certainly, for decades and decades, the Soviet State looked like it would never go anywhere. And you come back from vacation and there’s no more Soviet Union.

The Communist Party, I think, is probably illegalized at this point. Yeltsin is the president, and so that’s kind of where we left off the story. We went a little bit further, we talked about the story of the next decade and the grab for cash, the emergence of the oligarchs and the many who came from the party itself and from the state bureaucracy. And we get to the end of the ‘90s with a fairly established class of now billionaires or becoming billionaires, and a very chaotic state. And Putin becomes the new leader, and that’s sort of where we left off.

The sort of common narrative of this period after Putin becomes leader is that this is the story of the rise of a one- man dictatorship. And this is what the story of this whole next period of the Russian state is. What do you make of that?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: First of all, we do not have, and we didn’t have from the very beginning, dictatorship of Putin. In the beginning of his epoch, in the beginning of twenty-first century in our country, we had another style of life. It was continuation of the power of oligarchs with top officials. It was partnership and friendship with the West in the beginning, by the way. Partnership with NATO, partnership with the United States, even later, Putin was main advocate for joining to WTO. In Russia, we had very big opposition.

PAUL JAY: World Trade Organization.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, World Trade Organization. Majority of Russian, even business people- not majority as far as money was concerned, but in terms of businessmen. Is concerned. So, majority of even business people we against joining to WTO, to World Trade Organization.

PAUL JAY: So, Putin advocated more of an integration with the Western capitalism.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, Putin advocated, he became- I would say, in the modern sense of this word. Only after crisis, 2007, 2009- before, it was only some elements, some trends, maybe. And about democracy and dictatorship. In that period, we had growth of statism, but mainly in ideology, growth of Russian conservatism, but mainly in ideology, and it was not so strong. It was domination of liberal ideas before crisis, world crisis, 2007-2010. That was the trend. And it was, I want to remind, period when we had enormously high prices on oil and gas. It was up to one hundred fifty dollars per gallon. And Russia had an enormous amount of dollars for really nothing. And it came, it led to the enormous enrichment of oligarchs, but also some resources came to workers in budget sector, education, healthcare, to bureaucracy. It was enormous growth of bureaucracy and a little bit for ordinary workers and peasants.

PAUL JAY: And we talked earlier, in the previous segment, about even most of the oligarchs, as in medieval times, realized there needed to be a king because the competition between the oligarchs would threaten the systems of the oligarchs, and they needed a state to play that kind of role. In terms of Putin and the role of that state, there’s a perception, again, in the West, that it kind of gets used in a way that enhances Putin’s power in a sense that he can favor these oligarchs, and disfavor those, and a sense the state becomes more important than the oligarchs.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: It’s true and not true. If any oligarch, and billionaire- and in Russia, we have hundreds, more than one hundred owners of more than one billion dollars.

PAUL JAY: More than one hundred billionaires.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, and the country is not so rich as the United States or China, it’s ten times, maybe, not less than ten times- many times less than the United States or China. So, if any from these oligarchs will decide to attack rules of the game or personally, president and his team, he will be in prison or he must immigrate, and so on. But that doesn’t mean state became more important than class of oligarchs and top bureaucrats. First of all, it is not even class, it is strata inside class of bourgeoisie. We have very diversified class of bourgeoisie, very different types of bourgeoisie. And inside ruling strata, new nomenklatura is name which Voslenski used for Soviet bureaucrats. And now it’s very similar. A few thousand people with families, kids and so on, who are real rulers who concentrate economic and political power.

PAUL JAY: Because they control ministries, regulation-

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Yeah, executive power. They control ruling party, administration of president, and they control main part of wealth of Russia. Seventy percent of Russian wealth is concentrated in the hands of less than one percent of population.

PAUL JAY: We know that number here.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: And key resources in the hands of a few families, one hundred, two hundred families. So, the problem is that they have common interests, but they have clans, like in, I don’t know, court of Louis XIV or XV in France, different clans of aristocracy fighting between themselves. But generally speaking, it is one power, one strata of aristocrats who has power. The same in Russia. We have different clans, regional clans, clans that have connected with military-industrial complex, with oil and gas, with small difference between state gas and oil corporations and private gas and oil corporations. But difference is small because top managers of state corporation are also oligarchs. And the private owners of private corporations are in the control of bureaucracy.

So, in Russia, state and private means not too much. It’s not very big difference, unfortunately. And they have common interests. And these common interests led to stagnation of the economy because the development can be realized only if big money from this capital, oligarchic capital, bureaucratic capital, will be used for investments in high-tech technologies. And it will be redistribution of power, not simply of money, but redistribution of power. It will be new, active class. Class of engineers, creators, business people, but business, productive business people, not speculators and those who take land from the oil. And they will lose their power. So, if we have not simply growth, but development, new quality of development, this strata will lose their power.

That’s why for them, it’s not profitable to change economic, social, tendrils of life, of rules of the game, better to say. And for other population, this is stagnation, and stagnation on the low level with very big social differentiation. During last decade, we had more or less the same. After crisis, 2007-2010, it was ten percent decline of production. Then, we had small growth after five years, more or less the same level as 2007, then minus two percent plus one percent, zero plus two percent, near zero. And then finally, after twenty- I will finish on this. After twenty-five years of transformation from so-called inefficient economy of Soviet Russia inside Soviet Union, we have only plus fifteen percent, twenty-five years and only plus fifteen percent.

PAUL JAY: In productivity.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: In production, yeah, gross national product. Less than one percent per year during twenty-five years, all zig zags. And the quality is another.

PAUL JAY: Well, that’s kind of a dramatic number because, given computerization and such, productivity and gross national product in the West has gone far, far higher than that.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: And if you compare with China, which had similar problems, but China had minimum seven percent per year, and an average eight point five.

PAUL JAY: So, what does this mean in terms of the life of working people and what their expectations were? Remember, in an earlier segment you were saying everyone thought, “Get rid of the Communist Party and socialism,” and everyone was going to have “capitalism without capitalists,” the utopia.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Utopia, unfortunately. So, first of all, as I said, during first years of so-called market reforms, shock without therapy, we had terrible decline of production, incomes, and social differentiation. We received real poverty. And before, it was impossible. And poverty for not only lazy people, liberal dogma, but intelligentsia became extremely poor, workers became extremely poor. After this, high prices on oil, life became a little better. But what we have now- let’s move to modern situation. As I said, twenty million people from one hundred fifty, little less, in Russia, are living under the poverty level. And poverty level is ten thousand rubles. Ten thousand rubles is one hundred-

PAUL JAY: Say that again?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Ten thousand rubles is poverty level.

PAUL JAY: And how many people below that?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: We have twenty million people who has less than ten thousand rubles.

PAUL JAY: At this time?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: At this time. And this is continuation. Before, it was sometimes little less, sometimes little worse, but more or less the same. What is ten thousand rubles? It is one hundred sixty dollars per month. Of course, purchasing power of dollar is high, but if you want to buy normal equipment, you will pay even more than in the United States. If you want to buy bread, it will be a little less. So, that’s why it is poverty. Wage of majority of Russians, working Russians, is less than thirty thousand rubles per month. This is five hundred dollars. This is not poverty, but still, country is rich with oil.

PAUL JAY: The majority of people earning that wage.

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: Fifty percent has less than five hundred dollars per month. And in the same time, we have one of the best, second or so place as far number of billionaires is concerned. Billions, not of rubles, but billions of dollars. And they are buying football teams, palaces, two hundred thirty meters long yachts, and so on. It is a country with such situation.

PAUL JAY: So, Putin is the face of this system, whether he has as much power as people think he has or not, he’s powerful and the state is powerful. But he’s the face of this system. Why, if in fact he’s running at seventy percent or so popularity, if that’s true, why?

ALEXANDER BUZGALIN: This is big question.

PAUL JAY: So, we’ll talk about why Putin seems to remain so popular in spite of tremendous inequality of the society. So, please join us for the continuation of Reality Asserts Itself with Professor Buzgalin on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/is-putins-rule-a-dictatorship-rai-with-a-buzgalin-8-12
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 23, 2018, 03:00:14 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-050515144544.png&hash=7ee8a9d0ff80a564867eeb5fc64c6c942dec8dee)

Pompeo 🦍 Speech Marks Start Of Broader Campaign 😈 👹 💵 🎩  🏴‍☠️  For Iran Regime-Change

by Tyler Durden

Mon, 07/23/2018 - 13:15

SNIPPET:

It looks like we could be witnessing a repeat of the vast propaganda system (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) that was triggered and inundated the American and Western public in the lead-up to Iraq. Now that the Syrian proxy war appears to be slowly closing, the usual hawks (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) have set their cross hairs on Tehran. 

Full article:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-07-23/pompeo-iran-speech-mafia-leaders

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200317173810.png&hash=e0014c983c1e07f5fb22f33087bbd952dfa654b2)

(https://media.giphy.com/media/8PCxtRGFAvkLC/giphy.gif)

     
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on August 13, 2018, 08:46:10 pm
World BEYOND War info@worldbeyondwar.org

August 13, 2018


(Discussion 11) Nonviolent Civilian-Based Defense / Civilian Peacekeeping Forces🕊

https://youtu.be/NhahnyPpuoc

Nonviolent Civilian-Based Defense (CBD) deploys a powerful coercive force that does not require military action and shifts power away from the elite and into the hands of citizens. Unarmed civilian peacekeeping provides an effective, more sustainable, and potentially transformative alternative to militarized peacekeeping.

Learn more: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818184310-1635923.gif&hash=5e2530db4748ed6c7163e1d478fdfa3cd1108668)

http://globalsecurity.worldbeyondwar.org/discussion-11-civilian-peacekeeping/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 21, 2018, 08:09:56 pm
In Viral Video, Medea Benjamin 🕊 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221847.gif&hash=54129e3b65760aaddc6f2d7f42b34a7d839d2f27)  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) Confronts Trump Official ☠️ on Iran

September 21, 2018

At a public event in Washington, DC, CodePink’s Medea Benjamin confronted Brian Hook (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c), the head of Trump’s Iran Action ☠️ Group (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c), over the US withdrawal from the JCPOA and re-imposing crippling ☠️ sanctions on the Iranian people. Benjamin joins us to discuss her action, which went viral online

https://youtu.be/peJGmeg6ZE8

Story Transcript 👍👍👍

AARON MATE: It’s The Real News. I’m Aaron Mate.

The U.S. withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal has been one of the most consequential decisions of the Trump presidency that has faced relatively little public protest. Well, this week was different, when the administration was confronted directly. Brian Hook, the head of Trump’s so-called Iran Action Group, spoke Wednesday at the Hudson Institute, a right-wing think tank in Washington. As Hook finished his remarks, he was joined on stage by Medea Benjamin, co-founder of the peace group Code Pink.

BRIAN HOOK: It is time for all nations to join us in holding Iran to a new level of accountability for its destructive behavior; especially its lawless pursuit of ballistic missiles. Thank you.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: That is the most ridiculous thing I have seen. The world community wants to keep the Iran nuclear deal. Our allies. The Germans, the French, the British, they want to keep in this deal. The world community wants to keep the deal. Let’s talk about normal countries. Let’s talk about Saudi Arabia. Is that who our allies are? They are the biggest- to the world community. You’re hurting me. You’re actually hurting me. I want to ask, do you think these sanctions are hurting the regime, or are they hurting the Iranian people? They’re hurting the Iranian people. You’re making the case for war with Iran. How did the war with Iraq turn out? You’re doing exactly the same thing we did in the case of Iraq. We don’t want another war in the Middle East. How did Iraq turn out? How did Libya turn out? We have the people of Syria suffering. And how dare you bring up the issue of Yemen? It’s the Saudi bombing that is killing most people in Yemen. So let’s get real. No more war. Peace with Iran.

AARON MATE: Joining me now is the star of this viral video. Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of the peace group Code Pink. Welcome, Medea. Walk us through what you did here, and the message that you tried to bring.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Well, thanks for having me on, Aaron. You know, it’s very hard to sit through the kind of drivel of Brian Hook talking about missile, missile, missile, Iran threat, danger, not a normal country. And my head was spinning, and I felt like I had to get up and respond to it. And I knew that in the Q&A it was going to be curated. They had passed around cards. They weren’t going to answer the questions that I had asked. And so I felt I better just get up and say my piece.

And so as you can see, I jumped on stage. And I thought it was so important to counter the path that the Trump administration and Brian Hook and Mike Pompeo are taking us down, because it is so dangerous. And I’m old, Aaron. I’ve been through the antiwar movement around Vietnam, Central America, post-9/11. And I was just sitting there feeling this tremendous deja vu about Iraq; that here was yet another administration doing lies, distortions, inventions, whatever it wanted to paint Iran as a demon that had to be addressed militarily. And you know, we’ve got to do something to counter that. We can’t allow them to take us into another war in the Middle East or anywhere.

AARON MATE: You got a lot in in just a few minutes of remarks as they were dragging you away. One of the things you said was talking about the impact of sanctions, how the sanctions do not hurt the government of Iran so much as they hurt the people of Iran. And this is a critical point, as especially now already sanctions are back in place with Trump withdrawing from the nuclear deal. But even harsher sanctions from the U.S. are going to be reimposed in November. So can you talk about what you were speaking of in terms of the impact of the U.S. sanctions on Iran?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Yes. I’m in communication with a lot of people in Iran, and hear story after story about how devastating the sanctions already are. And as you said, in early November is the next round of sanctions to try to cut off oil exports from Iran, which is the main source of income, and will be absolutely devastating. And so I thought it was important to bring out the issue that these are ordinary Iranian people who were being hurt by the sanctions.

And the outpouring from Iran that I received after this intervention has been astounding. Yes, there are some people who are extremely nasty and actually doing death threats that I want to report to the FBI, but the majority of them have been really positive and saying how they are their lives are so difficult right now; they can’t get married because they don’t have money. They don’t want to have children because they don’t have the money to support them. They lost their jobs because the job situation is very difficult. A doctor who wrote to me and said he can’t treat his people, give them the kind of health care they deserve because of shortages.

So this is strangling not the higher-ups, not the clerics, not the government people. This is the strangulating the ordinary Iranian people. And it’s designed precisely to do that so they’ll be so angry that they’ll rise up against their government. But I think what is happening is that many people in Iran are becoming united against the outside because of this, instead of focusing on the changes they want to make in their own government. Now they feel they have to hunker down and save themselves against a potential war.

AARON MATE: And you mention that Brian Hook, the head of this new so-called Iran Action Group, was speaking about missiles in Iran. This issue of ballistic missiles. There have been rumblings in the Trump administration they want to try to push through some sort of new agreement with Iran that would limit its ballistic missiles. Can you talk about what is going on there, and what you think the Iranian government’s reaction to that will be, especially in light of the Trump ministration walking away from the Iran nuclear deal?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: We already know the reaction of the Iranian government, which is to say it’s ridiculous to pull out of a deal that was not an agreement between two countries, as Brian Hook said. It was an international agreement approved by the Security Council of the United Nations, by the European Union. If the U.S. pulls out of that it’s just crazy to think that the Iranians would sit down and negotiate another deal with the Trump administration. It makes absolutely no sense.

The rest of the world community, minus a couple of countries like Israel, Saudi Arabia, and the Emirates, want the deal to be saved. Trying to figure out how to salvage that deal. And we will see a lot of contentious things at the United Nations next week when the issue of Iran comes up, and we find that our allies in Europe are on a very different page than the Trump administration. So I think it is not rational to talk about trying to rein in Iran’s missile system when you have just ripped up a nuclear deal. And also to recognize the most sophisticated military technology in the Middle East is not in the government of Iran, it’s in the hands of Israel and Saudi Arabia, thanks to the United States.

AARON MATE: Medea, finally, I want to ask you just a personal question. You’ve become notorious for your willingness to confront U.S. officials and former U.S. officials at public events like this one. I remember there’s a famous incident where you were there when Donald Rumsfeld was entering a gathering, and you announced to the crowd, here comes the war criminal. And you stood beside him, denouncing him as a war criminal and speaking a bit about his record. I’m wondering, when you put yourself in this situation, are you ever nervous? Is it scary to go up against people, especially powerful people like your targets?

MEDEA BENJAMIN: It’s extremely scary. I don’t do this without sweating it out, and really a lot of shaking and questioning whether I should do it or should I do it. But in the end I think it’s important to do, and I think more people should do it. I wish there were people everywhere these criminals go to be popping up and denouncing them, because we make their lives way too easy when they are destroying the lives of people around the world.

AARON MATE: Medea Benjamin, co-founder of Code Pink, star of that new viral video confronting the head of the Trump administration’s Iran Action Group. Thank you, Medea.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: Thanks for having me on, Aaron.

AARON MATE: And thank you for joining us on The Real News.

https://therealnews.com/stories/in-viral-video-medea-benjamin-confronts-trump-official-on-iran

Agelbert NOTE: CodePink’s Medea Benjamin 🕊 deservves the Congressional Medal of Honor for her consistent outstanding courage and heroism. 💐 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185038-16442135.gif&hash=52927992b43007fa5c5eb6ffcb453ae29948c356)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 11, 2018, 12:06:04 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F814_31498732716_8452ea1881_b.jpeg&hash=4aa7975eb55c191a9c107318f455aa5c76966712)

Trump Says Blocking Saudi Arms Sales Would Be "Hurting Us" When Asked About Khashoggi (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-10-11/trump-says-blocking-arms-sales-would-be-hurting-us-when-asked-about-disappeared)

by Tyler Durden

Thu, 10/11/2018 - 10:29

Agelbert NOTE: These excellent comments tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth that Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270117175421.png&hash=cf39e823dd9156833bfa885808a876bf518bd0d6) and his Wall Street BACKED 🎩 🍌 War Profiteering 🏴‍ ☠️ Wrecking Crew 👹🦍 (AND MOST of the Democrats too!) refuse to admit.

Quote
PASSINGTHROUGHTOWN
41 minutes ago

Hurting us?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F1.bp.blogspot.com%2F-TzWpwHzCvCI%2FT_sBEnhCCpI%2FAAAAAAAAME8%2FIsLpuU8HYxc%2Fs1600%2Fnooo-way-smiley.gif&hash=b8545bd420b1e2f2c7b9f665d2093523e4ad2251)

No sir, if this "arms deal with the Saudi's"  ...

(you know ... those guys who did the WTC false thingy that  MURDERED about 3000, innocent, unsuspecting people in a well planned false flag event that essentially GUTTED what George Bush called 'just a goddamned piece of paper' )

... were blocked, I can assure you it would not impact me in the least! 

Yes, I can see that the Luciferian MIC, their Israeli partners, and the Saudi's wouldn't like it-- not to mention our ISIS proxy army that has a thing for raping children and mounting their heads on fence posts at the playground where they were kidnapped or burning them alive in cages  ... but it would certainly NOT hurt me, or the many, many, common decent people that I happen to know.

But ... that of course ... doesn't matter does it. 

And by the way Mr. Trump, just what did those 15 Saudi's have stuffed in their diplomatic suitcases that day they left the Saudi embassy in Turkey? 

It couldn't have been body parts by any chance, was it??

I AM JACK'S MACROAGGRESSION
37 minutes ago

http://www.unz.com/article/911-was-an-israeli-job/

PASSINGTHROUGHTOWN
25 minutes ago (Edited)

Totally agree Macroaggression, and I have come to a realization that the Saudi's and the Mossad work hand-in-glove. 

Mohammad Atta as I recall was a Saudi who was also working with the Mossad.  Mo and his crew had some apartments in Florida as I remember and his next door neighbors were all Mossad agents. 

When the embarassing picture emerged in the following weeks the Israelis were asked the obvious questions which they glibly dismissed as something like ... "oh ... yeah ... uhhhhh ... we were investigating Atta regarding .... uhhhhh ... a possible .... uhhhhhh .... terrorist attack on US soil."

Back in those days and before, I was a staunch Israeli supporter. 

I didn't know what a zionist was exactly, but I would have stupidily raised my hand as one if I had been asked.

NO MORE! 

My eyes were wide shut and I didn't realise it then.   George Bush's comment opened my eyes wide open and when I saw those Israelis (Mossad agents) in the white van cheering,  that did it for me.

I knew people in those buildings and they were better human beings than anyone running the Israeli government, the House of Saud, or Washington D.C. in my opinion.


PETER PAN
36 minutes ago

"doing probably better economically than it's ever done before"? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817122018.gif&hash=74d86c1f35e2f61ea38c9bfa392f84a92631b96e) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-220216203149.gif&hash=bd184b6edccce4045e246847a0c84e89bd5a18b6)

At least Skripal is alive. Imagine if he was dead.

All governments are hypocrites. It's just the degree that varies.

HKAN
37 minutes ago

Trump 👹 visiting KKK?

JOGGERNAUT X2
40 minutes ago

Trump is just looking out for his BFFs, the Saudis

NIGGAPLEEZE
47 minutes ago

Yeah, not selling bombs to the Saudi Barbarians to bomb children with in Yemen would "hurt us".   
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202829.png&hash=a4ec201b97ad269ff59a6a1c0f1c19a04b57803a)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191017140758.jpeg&hash=8c0a35a928dcda3c1a8714ab03f4924a1a775851)

But not selling oil equipment and civilian Boeing airplanes to Iran ... helps Israel. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4)

**** YOU, MUSHROOM.  TRAITOR.  ZIONIST PUPPET. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-16781285.gif&hash=a68bd32b1682197c213909d100b5b12389cce9f3) 🤬 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185039-1650578.gif&hash=f338daee4cd9cad66dc5bc5437615c9725fbc67d) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300115234833.gif&hash=20e82f36f361174e6f8f07e11c36330842502bab)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 12, 2018, 12:48:09 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Ah8Y0jSCvrK2PfYb8TEFWgiW7FdMJ5ViQirp0colh1sBY0l5MracKeMwc0NUSdWnvGsNvlC0M8ecC42xC6cfBcS6kAUlPk48clOJUluTuXRUvbCSQc1ClI4o=s0-d-e1-ft#https://s3.amazonaws.com/aktest-2011/images/win-without-war-logo.png)

October 12, 2018

Saudi Arabia (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) likely murdered a WaPo journalist. Here’s what that means.

Anthony:

Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi, a U.S. resident who wrote for the Washington Post, was just apparently killed on the eve of his wedding — and news reports suggest that the Saudi government was responsible.

We are heartbroken. But we are not surprised.

The Saudi government has a long history of cracking down on dissidents and murdering civilians. Meanwhile, U.S. news outlets have consistently propped up the image of Saudi Arabia’s crown prince as a reformer, giving him a free pass to continue executing activists, bombing Yemeni children in school buses, and using starvation as weapon of war in Yemen.

The New York Times and The Economist just announced they are pulling out of the Saudi government’s upcoming high-powered investment conference in the wake of Khashoggi’s apparent murder. This could be a watershed moment.


We’ve got to jump on this momentum and demand other U.S. media companies also stop legitimizing Saudi government repression and back out of this conference. Add your name now >> (https://act.winwithoutwar.org/act/media-companies-dont-invest-regime-murders-journalists-2)

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BREAKING: All companies but Fox Business have pulled out. Fox must follow suit!

The man who reportedly masterminded Khashoggi’s death is Saudi crown prince Mohammed bin Salman. This isn’t his first violent repression of critics. U.S. news outlets hailed bin Salman as a progressive reformer when he lifted Saudi Arabia’s ban on women driving — but stayed silent about his brutal crackdown on women’s rights activists, including his attempts to use the death penalty against feminist activist Israa al-Ghomgham.

Mohammed bin Salman is also the chief architect of the bloody, brutal, U.S.-backed war in Yemen. Bombing campaigns targeting hospitals, school buses, and weddings that have killed thousands of Yemenis. Deliberately starving millions more. Blocking access to medicine amid the world’s worst recorded cholera epidemic. These murders are on bin Salman’s hands too.


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U.S. support of Saudi Arabia has made the war in Yemen possible. And mainstream media’s refusal to sound the alarm has sealed the deal.

That’s why this is SUCH a huge moment. Influential U.S. media outlets like the New York Times and The Economist are drawing a line and refusing to legitimize Saudi government repression any longer.

If we can get the other media companies sponsoring the Saudi government’s fancy, feel-good conference to turn their backs, we will send a powerful signal that upends the United States’ unquestioning support of Saudi Arabia and jams the door wide open to ending the Saudi-led war in Yemen for good.

Add your name: U.S. media companies are complicit in Saudi repression and the slaughter of civilians in Yemen. They must back out of Saudi Arabia’s upcoming investment conference and speak out forcefully to defend freedom of speech and end U.S. support for the Saudi-led war in Yemen. (https://act.winwithoutwar.org/act/media-companies-dont-invest-regime-murders-journalists-2)

Thank you for working for peace 🕊,

Amy, Sunjeev, Kate, and the Win Without War team
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 12, 2018, 01:24:24 pm
Will the Disappearance of Journalist Jamal Khashoggi Bring Down the US-Saudi Alliance?

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October 12, 2018

Journalist James M. Dorsey says Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) has suffered significant reputational damage on the eve of a major global trade conference known as Vision 2030 or  “Davos in the Desert”

https://youtu.be/phXw2WGYuI8

https://therealnews.com/stories/will-the-disappearance-of-journalist-jamal-khashoggi-bring-down-the-us-saudi-alliance
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 12, 2018, 03:03:02 pm
Agelbert NOTE: SEE the question about woods and wild bear habits.

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Is the U.S. Complicit in Saudi Journalist’s Disappearance?

October 11, 2018

President Trump says the US is pressing Saudi Arabia for answers on the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi. But new questions are being raised about the US role after a Washington Post report that U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture and “lay hands on” Khashoggi. We speak to Ali Al-Ahmed, founder and director of The Institute for Gulf Affairs

https://youtu.be/DBbRLpCo_-M

download mp3 (https://api.spreaker.com/v2/episodes/15938129/download.mp3)

Story Transcript

AARON MATE: It’s The Real News. I’m Aaron Mate.

President Trump says the U.S. is pressing Saudi Arabia for answers on the fate of missing journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

DONALD TRUMP: This is a bad situation. We cannot let this happen to reporters, to anybody. We can’t let this happen. And we’re going to get to the bottom of it, OK? You may want to speak to the First Lady’s office about [inaudible]. I’d rather not say. But in a very high level. The highest level. Let’s say- let me say this. It’s the highest level.

AARON MATE: Khashoggi entered the Saudi embassy in Turkey last Tuesday to obtain a document he needed to get married. He has not been seen since. Turkish officials say they believe he was killed by a team of 15 Saudis- a hit squad, they say, who flew into Turkey for that purpose. According to the New York Times, Turkey believes one team member brought a bone saw to dismember Khashoggi’s body after killing him. Saudi Arabia has denied any involvement in Khashoggi’s disappearance, but it has not provided any evidence that shows where else Khashoggi might be.

And although the White House now claims to be demanding answers, new questions are being raised about the U.S. role. The Washington Post reports, “before Khashoggi’s disappearance, U.S. intelligence intercepted communications of Saudi officials discussing a plan to capture him. The Saudis wanted to lure Khashoggi back to Saudi Arabia and lay hands on him there.” In Washington today a group of supporters gathered to demand answers on Khashoggi’s disappearance. Among the speakers was Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin.

MEDEA BENJAMIN: I knew Jamal, and actually was critical of him for not being more critical of the Saudi government. We had some very wonderful exchanges. And my heart goes out to his family and everybody who knew and loved him. Of course we want to believe he’s still alive, but I don’t believe it. I believe that he is dead. And you know why? Because I know what the Saudi government is capable of. And I want to denounce the Western democracies for their hypocrisy and their enabling of Saudi behavior for so many years now.

AARON MATE: Joining me is Ali Al-Ahmed, founder and director of Institute for Gulf Affairs. Welcome, Ali. First, let me ask you if you could speculate, what is your sense of the fate of Jamal Khashoggi right now? Do you think he is still alive? Or do you think the Saudis have indeed killed him?

ALI AL-AHMED: Until this morning the messages I’ve been getting are that he was alive. But today, and by the end of the day, we have- I’ve heard people have, they have seen a video of him being killed. That video was taken by his Apple watch. And that streamed to his iPhone, which was outside the consulate at the hand of his wife, and the Turkish authorities were able to go unlock the phone and then see the video. The gruesome video. So we have confirmation from people who said they were shown the video by the Turkish police. So [inaudible]

AARON MATE: Ali, this is a, this is a very explosive claim. You’ve spoken to people who say that they have seen video that was beamed from his watch showing his murder? Who are these people you’ve spoken to?

ALI AL-AHMED: This is an editor of Turkish government TV. I have his recorded statement that this is what happened, and that this is confirmation that Khashoggi has been killed. And it shows the actual murder. And it would be [inaudible].

AARON MATE: And you spoke to this editor personally?

ALI AL-AHMED: No, I didn’t speak to this editor personally, but I have his recording. I know that the recording came; he sent it to a group of friends that I am- and one of them sent it to me. So he knows one of my friends who- he sent the broadcast to his friends, and we have a common friend who sent it to me. And I have it in my phone. I would be happy to send it to you. You can check with him, he has a Twitter account.

AARON MATE: OK. Well, until we get confirmation from Turkish authorities, and Saudi Arabia, obviously it’s best to-

ALI AL-AHMED: This is government, government television. This is Arabic TRT station.

AARON MATE: OK. I’ve missed that report on Turkish television. So let me ask you-

ALI AL-AHMED: It’s not a report, yeah. This is, like I said, this by director of Turkish, Arabic TV. And he sent it to his friends. One of them [inaudible] is a friend of mine who sent it to me. And I have it. I’ll be happy to send it to you, and you can talk to the gentleman himself and authenticate it.

AARON MATE: OK. So as we await confirmation, public confirmation, from the Turkish government, let’s just talk about what is going on here. No matter what happened to Jamal Khashoggi, why do you think he was targeted? He was- some people call him a critic of the Saudi government, or a dissident. But that’s not quite accurate. He actually was close to the Saudi royal family, worked for them. He expressed some concerns about freedom of expression in Saudi Arabia. But he was not a harsh critic of the regime, as I understand it. Can you talk about who he- what he did, and why do you think the Saudi government came after him?

ALI AL-AHMED: He- Jamal Khashoggi has been always a loyalist until he came back, he came, ran away and fled to the United States. So he was a loyalist. And even after he left he was speaking on TV and saying that his allegiance is to King Salman. But he was critical of the conditions that Mohammed bin Salman, the son, the Crown Prince, was making the country go through. So he’s a loyalist, and he’s a man who made his career being a loyalist to the Saudi monarchy. So his career was built on that. He was advisor, he supported- he was a diplomat in Washington, and in London. He worked with the Saudi intelligence in the ’80s in organizing and recruiting fighters against the Soviet Union at the time. So he has a long history of loyalty.

That is actually exactly what made it worse for him, because the Saudi monarchy does not accept anything but absolute loyalty, without any shred of hesitation. And because he kind of departed from that- he’s loyal to the King. You know, maybe sometimes in a very awful way, to be honest, because he spoke about what he called a, I have an allegiance, a loyalty to the King, but then he criticized his son for his behavior and policies. Because at this time we are not slaves and masters anymore, so that, that term is kind of abhorrent to me.

Anyway, so because he is from within the ranks of the monarchy, or their proxies, it was important for the Saudi government to send a message to their followers, to their loyalists, that you cannot emulate Khashoggi, you cannot break with us and turn your back against us, because we will punish you harshly. And that is exactly, I think, the plan. The message was clear. There is no need to send 15 people to kill one man. One man could have done it. And you know, even getting rid of the body they’ll need a lot of help. But this was a message. This is executing your opponent in the street so that the population are scared. Exactly. This is what they are doing here. Again, he was not a dissident. He was actually critical of dissidents much more than he was critical of the government. And he was sometimes hostile to dissidents, including myself. But that does not excuse his execution or kidnapping. It is unfortunate, [especially for his family].

AARON MATE: Let’s talk about the message that the U.S. is sending here. So you have this report now in the Washington Post claiming that U.S. intelligence intercepted Saudi Arabian officials talking about a plan to lure him back to Saudi Arabia and lay their hands on him, as the Post says there. Does not seem- there’s no indication that Khashoggi was warned about this by U.S. officials. And then after his disappearance you have initially a very muted response from the White House. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo put out a call for the Saudis to investigate it. Sort of a mild call for the alleged kidnappers to investigate their own kidnapping. You had Trump today saying that he’s speaking to Saudi Arabia officials at the highest levels. What do you make of the Trump administration’s response so far?

ALI AL-AHMED: I’m actually surprised that this is- I’ve been here long enough to see this before. This is the highest and the strongest reaction to incidents or crimes committed by the Saudi government ever. And so, and that, when it comes to comparison, this is the, the most widespread from the administration, and from Congress and the media, obviously. Previous violations did not- although they are much more abhorrent, they did not receive such attention under the Obama or the Bush administration. Just look at the war in Yemen a few weeks ago, last month when the Saudis bombed deliberately this bus, 40 Yemeni children. The U.S. administration actually sided with Saudi Arabia, and did not have- so this is a stronger reaction.

And I think there is something here. I have no idea what it is. It has, maybe it has to do with the fact that Mr. Trump is saying you have to pay, you have to pay to the Saudi king. And this may be yet another way of pushing the Saudis- it might not be a genuine escalation on Saudi Arabia to truly improve human rights. After all, the United States has been supporting and protecting the Saudi monarchy for nearly 60 years, and it has ignored totally the violation of human rights, including religious freedom for even Americans in Saudi Arabia; and woman driving, the last country in the world. And the lack of cinemas, and basic freedom, and so on.

So this is, I think it is, it has been the strongest reaction. I know some people don’t see it that way, but that’s the reality.

AARON MATE: Ali, let me go to that clip you mentioned of Trump speaking about the Saudi king. He said this last week at a rally.

DONALD TRUMP: Protect Saudi Arabia. Would you say they’re rich? And I love the king, King Salman. But I said, King, we’re protecting you. You might not be there for two weeks without us. You have to pay for your military.

AARON MATE: That’s President Trump speaking at a recent rally. So Ali, finally, there is talk now of this incident marking a change in U.S.-Saudi relations. Do you think, if it is officially confirmed that Jamal Khashoggi has been killed, do you think that that change will happen?

ALI AL-AHMED: I doubt it. I hope so, but I doubt it. I don’t think it will happen. Because I think the relationship is dependent on maintaining domination🦕 of the country and its resources (https://c7.alamy.com/comp/E7HDG6/orange-oil-drum-or-barrel-E7HDG6.jpg) by the United States🦖. If Mohammed bin Salman is starting to grow his own wings and refusing to pay, as Mr. Trump put it, maybe then they would be extremely increasing pressure. Let’s remember, the U.S. government overthrew elected secular liberal democrats in Iran in 1953. So this is nothing new. So it’s not about how you treat your people. It’s how good you treat the American regime; what are you, how much you are willing to pay, and spend your money buying weapons, or conducting or supporting U.S. policies in the region. That has been the factor that the U.S. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201645-1486464.jpeg&hash=bfa44b2ee2b1d6d1ea71a024b1bd6e9cf1328326) has used to evaluate its allies and foes in the region.

AARON MATE: All right. So we’ll leave it there. I just want to go back to what Ali said at the beginning of this interview, this claim that there is Apple watch footage of the killing. Again, nothing is confirmed yet publicly from the Turkish authorities, so we need to be cautious. There is a report on the Middle East Eye that cites a Turkish source, saying that Turkish police have audio and video evidence of the killing. But it does not name the source or identify what is the nature of that supposed audio and video evidence. And it also- the Middle East Eye also makes reference to Turkish police looking at the Apple watch worn by Khashoggi being synced to his wife’s phone. So we will await confirmation, again, from the Turkish police on the outcome of their investigation, and whether or not these reports of there being audio and video evidence being correct.

My guest has been Ali Al-Ahmed. He is the founder and director of the Institute for Gulf Affairs. I’m Aaron Mate for The Real News.

https://therealnews.com/stories/is-the-u-s-complicit-in-saudi-journalists-disappearance

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 16, 2018, 06:32:44 pm
Two Koreas Advance Peace Without Trump’s ‘Approval’ (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132401-16872027.gif&hash=bba6aaee2cf1cdc8a213cd8f2d2c6a9bcd8c3f3a)

October 15, 2018

North and South Korea are moving ahead with plans to build road and rail links as part of their historic peace talks. But the U.S. is standing in the way, as Trump refuses to lift sanctions and claims that the South Koreans “do nothing without our approval.” We speak to Col. Lawrence Wilkerson

https://youtu.be/d9RbNeVaP5M

https://therealnews.com/stories/two-koreas-advance-peace-without-trumps-approval
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 22, 2018, 01:39:32 pm
Assassins for Hire: US Citizens, Israelis, and Palestinians Kill for Money (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040718162655-14231561.gif&hash=98b427175ee380f6d3c313520cc8668c10f2172a)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-190318152544.png&hash=f9c3636b6ca81d8a7b9c7b8182c3367edbb8a377)  in Yemen  >:(

October 22, 2018

The US-based mercenary company Spear Group, headed by an Israeli and hired by a Palestinian on behalf of the UAE, conducts extra-judicial killings in Yemen. Antony Loewenstein discusses the details

https://youtu.be/Lajj_lQWfeo

https://therealnews.com/stories/assassins-for-hire-us-citizens-israelis-and-palestinians-kill-for-money-in-yemen

Quote
Proverbs 11 King James Version (KJV)

17 The merciful man doeth good to his own soul: but he that is cruel troubleth his own flesh.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on November 13, 2018, 12:46:52 pm
War costs us $13.6 trillion. So why do we spend so little on peace?  :( (https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2016/06/the-world-continues-to-spend-enormous-amounts-on-violence-and-little-on-building-peace/)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 03, 2018, 09:19:17 pm
Bernie Sanders: End U.S. Arms Sales to Saudis and Support for its Yemen War

December 3, 2018

Sen. Sanders joins Paul Jay to discuss his Senate resolution to end US support for the Saudi war in Yemen

https://youtu.be/i1PR8b_vFbM

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome back to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay. We’re in Burlington 👍, Vermont at the Sanders Institute (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac) Gathering. And joining me now is someone who needs no introduction. Senator Bernie Sanders, thanks for joining us.

BERNIE SANDERS: Thank you, Paul, and thank you for the great work The Real News is doing. I appreciate it.

PAUL JAY: Thank you. Right now you’re very focused on your resolution on Yemen. Something verging on genocide going on, the Saudis’ intervention there. Talk about the resolution, and what you hope to achieve.

BERNIE SANDERS: Well, it’s not just me. We’re working with a conservative Republican, Mike Lee of Utah. Chris Murphy of Connecticut has also played a very great, good role.

What we have managed to do, what we did last week, is for the first time use the War Powers Act to move forward to stop a horrible, horrible war. And that war is the Saudi-led intervention in the Yemen civil war. Yemen has always been a poor country. But since the Saudi-led intervention and the bombing and the destruction of that country, what we have seen in the last three years is 85,000 children already starve to death. And what the United Nations tell us, the United Nations is telling us, is that millions more are facing starvation. There are 10,000 outbreaks of cholera, 10,000 new cases of cholera, every single week. So you have a country which is really being destroyed by the Saudi-led intervention in that country. And if we are successful, we will end U.S. involvement in that war. What we then do is move toward demanding peace in that area, and the humanitarian aid that Yemen desperately needs.

PAUL JAY: The U.S.-Saudi alliance, if that’s the word one could call it, is an underpinning of a whole strategy the United States has had since World War II in the region, allying with, essentially, a fascistic dictatorship that gave us al-Qaeda, gave us the Taliban, gave us the Islamic radicalization of Pakistan, on and on–including, perhaps, 9/11, because there’s–including senators who think the Saudis were directly involved in 9/11. If you’re president, what do you do with the relationship with–

BERNIE SANDERS: Well, I’m a United States senator. So I … Look, I have been doing my best to make just those points, and to say why are we deeply allied–and you know, and Trump has taken it to a new level. There is an outrage all over the country and in Congress that in the most cold-blooded way imaginable, enticing a dissident to walk into a consulate, a Saudi consulate in Turkey, killing him and then dismembering them. This is, presumably, our wonderful ally. And Trump can’t even acknowledge the reality of what the CIA has told them.

But it’s not just Jamal Khashoggi. What it is is a despotic regime run by one family, where women are treated not as second-class citizens, third-class citizens. It’s a regime that does not tolerate dissent, where there is no democracy. And it is now a regime under Mohammed bin Salman which has a very aggressive military posture which took them into Yemen. And what I fear very much, to pick up on your point, is that if we continue to back them, what you’re going to see is that the United States gets sucked into a neverending war in the Middle East.

Look, we can be very critical of Iran, and we should be. But our job is to try to bring peace to that region, not get sucked into. Their wars. So I think we have got to fundamentally rethink our relationship with Saudi Arabia.

PAUL JAY: Lindsey Graham seems to have given up on MBS and wants to dump him. But Lindsey Graham-

BERNIE SANDERS: That was yesterday.

PAUL JAY: But Graham doesn’t want to break the basic relationship.

BERNIE SANDERS: I don’t want to–look. That’s media stuff. You … look. As you indicated, this is a despotic regime, all right, which is responsible for enormous destruction in the very impoverished country of Yemen. We have got to fundamentally rethink our relationship with that regime, and try to play a level-handed role in what is a very volatile region, obviously, of the world. And do what we can to bring peace to that region.

PAUL JAY: Stop arms sales to Saudi Arabia?

BERNIE SANDERS: Yeah, absolutely. This should not be–look. These, this should … You know, when you talk about American values, that has nothing to do with what is existing in Saudi Arabia right now.

PAUL JAY: All right. Thanks for joining us, Senator.

BERNIE SANDERS: Thank you.

PAUL JAY: Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/bernie-sanders-end-u-s-arms-sales-to-saudis-and-support-for-its-yemen-war
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 09, 2018, 02:02:10 pm
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WORLD NEWSDECEMBER 9, 2018 / 9:13 AM

China says U.S. should withdraw arrest warrant for Huawei executive

SNIPPET:

Meng Wanzhou, Huawei’s global chief financial officer, was arrested in Canada on Dec. 1 and faces extradition to the United States, which alleges that she covered up her company’s links to a firm that tried to sell equipment to Iran despite sanctions.

The executive is also the daughter of the founder of Huawei.

Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Le Yucheng told U.S. ambassador Terry Branstad that the United States had made an “unreasonable demand” on Canada to detain Meng while she was passing through Vancouver, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

“The actions of the U.S. seriously violated the lawful and legitimate rights of the Chinese citizen, and by their nature were extremely nasty,”
Le told Branstad, comments similar to those he made to Canada’s ambassador the night before.

China strongly urges the United States to pay attention to China’s solemn and just position and withdraw the arrest warrant on Meng, Le added.

“China will respond further depending on U.S. actions,” he said, without elaborating.
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Le also told the Canadian ambassador on Saturday that there would be severe consequences if it did not immediately release Meng.

The United States has been looking since at least 2016 into whether Huawei shipped U.S.-origin products to Iran and other countries in violation of U.S. export and sanctions laws, Reuters reported in April.

Companies are barred from using the U.S. financial system to funnel goods and services to sanctioned entities.

Read more:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-china-huawei/china-says-u-s-should-withdraw-arrest-warrant-for-huawei-executive-idUSKBN1O80GL


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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 11, 2018, 02:23:30 pm
US & Canada Violate International Law with the Arrest of Chinese Huawei Exec

December 10, 2018

Col. Larry Wilkerson explains that it’s not the Chinese Huawei executive that violated law when circumventing US sanctions, but it is the US that violates them by imposing sanctions that were never agreed to on an international level

Story Transcript

GREG WILPERT: It’s The Real News Network, and I’m Greg Wilpert.

This past weekend, China issued a strong condemnation of Canada’s arrest of Meng Wanzhou, the chief financial officer of the Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei. Meng was arrested last December 1, and is now awaiting a bail hearing in Canada. The Chinese government warned Canada last Saturday that there would be severe consequences if it did not immediately release Huawei Technologies’ chief financial officer, calling the case extremely nasty. Meng Wanzhou faces extradition to the United States, which alleges that she covered up her company’s links to a firm that tried to sell equipment to Iran despite sanctions. She’s also the daughter of the founder of Huawei. If extradited to the United States, Meng would face charges of conspiracy to defraud multiple financial institutions, a Canadian court heard on Friday, with a maximum sentence of 30 years for each charge.

The news of Meng’s arrest caused turmoil in stock markets around the world for the past week because of the uncertainty it throws on US-China negotiations to stop a trade war. Joining me now to analyze this latest development in US-China relations is Colonel Larry Wilkerson. He’s the former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, and currently teaches at the College of William and Mary. Thanks for joining us again, Larry.

LARRY WILKERSON: Thanks for having me.

GREG WILPERT: Meng Wanzhou was arrested on the same day that US President Trump and China’s President Xi Jinping were meeting at the G20 summit in Argentina talking about how to resolve the trade war between the two countries. Apparently Trump did not know about the impending arrest of Ms Meng. What do you make of this? How is it possible that a key Chinese citizen would be arrested without the President’s knowledge, and throw a wrench into very delicate trade negotiations?

LARRY WILKERSON: Well, of course the administration’s response–I would have probably written this response, too, if I were caught out in such an incompetent and unprofessional act, and that’s what it was–but their response was simply that the legal is separate from the political, from the diplomatic. And this was a legal affair, and therefore doesn’t impinge on diplomacy, nor does diplomacy impinge on it. That’s, of course, a farcical answer. In any number of other areas where legal affairs and diplomacy intrude on one another the administration has taken fairly strong positions one way or the other. So that’s their explanation.

But to go to the heart of the matter, I suspect that this is just a tempest in a teapot with regard to the ultimate trade negotiations going on. China has to make its pro forma protestations, and we have to make our pro forma comments on why we did it, and why it’s separate from diplomacy, and the trade negotiations, and so forth and so on. Those are two dimensions of it. A third dimension is that this company is probably guilty of a lot worse than breaking sanctions with Iran–and I’ll come back to that. In terms of stealing things from the United States or from others in the West, in terms of technology transfer and other things that impinge on US security and our allies’ security, this company is probably one of the principal agents in the world. So I personally have no problem with someone finally taking some action to make it public that they are doing so, and get it out of the top secret codeword areas where people have to deal with it. I suspect strongly that NSA intercepts of perhaps her telephone calls may have led them to where they are.

But let me say this about the specific charge, supposedly, that they have, that she was talking about, or that she was condoning, or whatever, busting of Iran sanctions. I assume that what they mean, and I see no real specificity here, is that she was challenging the US sanctions on Iran. What, I might ask, gives us the arrogance of power to say that we can dictate in unilateral sanctions what somebody does with another country in terms of trade? Now, if they are specifying that she was breaking UN Security Council agreed sanctions of which China had been a signatory, or at least an abstainer in the vote thereon, then I can understand why there might be some anger and some legality, even, attached to censuring her, or even bringing her here and putting her on trial or whatever, if the evidence is really straightforward and damning and it was a UN-approved sanction.

Although that’s very difficult to argue, too, since we break those sanctions all the time, also. Case in point, when Donald Trump withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the nuclear agreement with Iran, he broke the law. He broke international law and he broke domestic law. Custom and precedent has come to show that executive agreements are just right next to treaty law. And you’d have to counsel a whole bunch of people, get them all together and try to figure out exactly how this would boil out, but our Constitution gives treaty law the power of domestic law. And I wouldn’t vouchsafe an argument that an executive agreement was the same as treaty unless it was affected by, oh yes, the permanent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany and the European Union. That sort of approaches treaty law.

So in my view–and I’m not a legal scholar, but I’ve talked with a number of them–in my view, Donald Trump violated international law and even domestic law when he violated the nuclear agreement with Iran, which is precisely what he did. So as I said, this has a lot of complex dimensions. But most of those dimensions reflect badly on the United States rather than on the case specifically being talked about, although I don’t know all the details of that case yet.

GREG WILPERT: I actually want to turn to the point that you alluded to just a moment ago, about Huawei the company being involved in kind of, in basically other kinds of violations. And I’ve heard this before, that they might have been involved in spying; that they use their technology to provide information to the Chinese government. But if this is the case, wouldn’t be the more sensible approach to just, say, tell US agencies and US companies just not to do business with Huawei? How can that possibly justify an arrest of a Chinese executive?

LARRY WILKERSON: Well let me take two parts to that question; the first part being your implication that we should deal with them straightforwardly, and deal with American companies straightforwardly. Anecdote, here. General Electric. We’re at the National Defense University, and we are talking about–we being representatives of the CIA, the DIA, Singapore, Japan, Korea. Number of other countries. We are talking about this very subject. And with the Vice President for Government Affairs, as I recall, of General Electric. We are lightly and softly chastising him for having shared intellectual material with China, apparently, that allowed China to steal a march on us with regard to–need to be careful here. Let’s just say with regard to stealth technology. The response of that GE official was that he had a fiduciary responsibility. Our response to that was are you kidding me? Your responsibility to your shareholders is more than your responsibility to the United States of America and its security? Got pretty testy after that.

All to illustrate the fact that companies like Wal-Mart, and ExxonMobil, and General Electric, and IBM, and others, of course in the past have dealt with unsavory characters like the Nazis, for example, in the case of IBM. But today it’s a regular routine for these transnational corporations. For example, when I was at the State Department, some of our most formidable opponents in legal actions at the World Trade Organization were our own companies. That is to say, companies with their masthead in the United States like Wal-Mart, like ExxonMobil, taking positions in the WTO against their own country. So these companies really have no national allegiance. In many cases, their allegiance is to their shareholders and to their overwhelming and almost insidiously perverse profits. So that’s the first answer. You can’t count on American, so-called quote-unquote “American” companies, to do what they should be doing.

The second answer is some of this stuff is very dangerous. When it comes to submarine technology, especially ballistic missile submarines, when it comes to technology like that wrapped around the F-35 fighter aircraft, when it comes to technology associated with artificial intelligence and robotics and other more sophisticated areas of technology, this is getting very serious. It becomes a battle behind the scenes, if you will, that equates to economic warfare. And I think there is a dimension to that right now between the United States and China that I would actually label economic warfare. It of course is happening with other countries, too, like Russia. To a certain extent we’re waging economic warfare, one-sided economic warfare, against Iran. And this is a dangerous area for the states of the world to get into, too. But we’re doing it, and companies like Huawei, and people like this CFO and others are–and American corporate leaders, too, are complicit in this war. And they’re in it for one reason, I think. Money. Greed.

GREG WILPERT: So another aspect of this whole incident is that Canada’s participation–that is, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau of Canada said that he didn’t know about the impending arrest, either, and implied that it was carried out by local authorities in Vancouver, where she was arrested. But just looking at what does this mean for Canada-China relations? I mean, is Canada bending over backwards now to do the Trump administration’s bidding? What do you think?

LARRY WILKERSON: That’s a good question. And having been there for four years at the very top of this business, looking at demarches being sent around the world, and so forth; looking at Beijing, looking at Tel-Aviv, looking at Tokyo, looking at, for that matter, Ottawa, and dealing with all these things, I would have to say that 90 percent of the time or better the governments do know what’s going on. That is to say, the leadership knows what’s going on. John Bolton, of course, when I heard him, said that the President didn’t know this was going on. In Trump’s case I don’t doubt that that’s not probably true, because he doesn’t seem to have much attention for detail. But that Bolton didn’t tell him was an indictment of John Bolton, not the president. So I don’t know, but I would suspect strongly that all of the leaders involved here, except maybe for Xi Jinping, knew that this was coming down the pike, and had agreed that they were not going to stop it from coming down the pike for various and sundry reasons, and you’ve just suggested one of them for Canada.

I was involved in some of the Joint Board activities with Canada when we were dealing with the Red River, dealing with the Columbia River, and other things. And I have to say that our northern neighbor knows which side of its bread is buttered, and who butters it. And at the end of the day, Canada may stand up and seem to be bold in the face of the giant to its South’s wishes. But it rarely really is. It knows its economic future and present is pretty much dominated by the United States, and it knows that if it doesn’t follow what the United States wants it to do in most cases, it will be punished. And it does not wish to be punished the way we punish people these days.

GREG WILPERT: Now, Meng’s arrest was ostensibly, as we mentioned earlier, for subverting US sanctions against Iran. Would you say that this arrest is a sign of things to come in terms of how the US is going to deal with companies that in some way circumvent US sanctions against Iran? Or is this a very specific incident that has more to do with the complicated state of US-China relations at the moment?

LARRY WILKERSON: Both. But the one part of it that truly worries me–I’m not that concerned about US-China relations. They will survive. Trade relations will survive. I’m not altogether opposed to what President Trump very artfully, imperfectly, and even incompetently is trying to do, and that is to balance the trade relationship a little bit better. I think there are a lot better ways to do it. But I do appreciate that unlike President Obama and previous presidents, he has at least taken some action, and some forceful action. At the same time, as I say, I don’t think US-China relations are going to be majorly disturbed by this. I am very concerned about the way we wield the sanctions acts in the world. I don’t know how many countries we have under sanctions right now, but it’s probably half the world in one way or another; individual states, or parts of states, or whatever. And there is a very powerful movement aborning in the world to de-dollarize the world because of those sanctions and the arrogance with which we implement them.

Our congress is majorly guilty in this business. They think the best weapon to throw at everybody is sanction that person, sanction that state, sanction them, put more sanctions on them, and so forth. Well, there’s a lot of people out there. We’ve got about 330 million in this country. Now there’s about seven-plus billion in the world. And in polls, about two and a half to three billion of those people say that the number one threat to the security of their state, of their country, of their children’s future is the United States of America. Part of the reason for that is our arrogance, and the way we do this business with sanctions and war. And we’re creating a lot of enemies in the world. We’re creating a lot of rancor. A lot of people really don’t want to see us succeed in the future. This is not a way to be doing business in the world. And Donald Trump, unknowingly, unwittingly, probably, because he thinks he’s doing great things, is augmenting and accelerating that disgust and hatred for the United States in the world.

Now, listen to what I just said. That Statue of Liberty sits out there and raises her lamp and says send me your teeming hordes, you know. We have been that image at least for most of my life. If not a perfect image, certainly an image that many of us try to live up to. Now the image of us is the same image you see in, for example, the movies about the Empire and the Jedi knights and Darth Vader, and so forth. Dick Cheney gets called Darth Vader all the time, and he laughs. He smiles at it. He actually likes that sobriquet. That’s what we’re becoming to the world. We are the Empire. We’re the Battlestar out in space that will shoot them at any moment, sanction them at any moment. Lots of people in the world despise us, fear us, and hate us; 400 million of them in Southwest Asia basically think we are the biggest threat to their future, and wish dearly that we’d get out of their area and leave them alone. This is not a way to preserve this empire. This is not a way to preserve our power. This is not a way to deal with the world. And yet it seems to be the only way we know.

GREG WILPERT: OK. We’re going to have to leave it there for now. I was speaking to Colonel Larry Wilkerson. Thanks again, Larry, for having joined us today.

LARRY WILKERSON: Thanks for having me.

GREG WILPERT: And thank you for joining The Real News Network. If you like Real News Network stories such as this one, please keep in mind that we have started our winter fundraiser and need your help to reach our goal of raising $400,000. Every dollar that you donate will be matched. And unlike practically all other news outlets we do not accept support from governments or corporations, and depend on our viewers. Please do what you can today.

https://therealnews.com/stories/us-canada-violate-international-law-with-the-arrest-of-chinese-huawei-exec
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 12, 2018, 05:58:15 pm
(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/0VfKu5WM8vb5hB8iqNOCAYJmEeTUlHyX9uOm_1sKMENpUubvvAd6fuU-rRTyLwPTGPlTLFvPO1qSgwXOdlVJT8qK07vYedIwoFUQhImXQzR4wacPwzKHZA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://worldbeyondwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/wbwnosub300.jpg)

December 12, 2018

(https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/eOQhAP41VLkBEf4nWECEgByuj07JlRJ3BW8OLKenfj3c8ZOv7ONq-qjTfuCwx1I9O02qMkM8Q1SuW812z4WBIULnADW4Se5YjlpjzJDdkTGOmYWoOGDbaFHe8MyhO6zi1eR3yJv7kA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://can2-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/data/000/242/935/original/gndWBWemail.jpg)

Congresswoman-Elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has drafted a Green New Deal that fails to acknowledge the existence of the U.S. military as an environmentally destructive force, and the U.S. military budget (over 60% of discretionary spending) as a potential source of revenue.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN THE FOLLOWING PETITION (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ask-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-to-include-the-military-in-the-green-new-deal), which World BEYOND War, RootsAction.org, and CODE PINK will deliver to Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez in January.
We propose the following edits that would allow us to join in supporting your Green New Deal.

1. Change this:

The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall recognize that innovative public and other financing structures are a crucial component in achieving and furthering the goals and guidelines relating to social, economic, racial, regional and gender-based justice and equality and cooperative and public ownership set forth in paragraphs (2)(A)(i) and (6)(B). The Plan (and the draft legislation) shall, accordingly, ensure that the majority of financing of the Plan shall be accomplished by the federal government, using a combination of the Federal Reserve, a new public bank or system of regional and specialized public banks, public venture funds and such other vehicles or structures that the select committee deems appropriate, in order to ensure that interest and other investment returns generated from public investments made in connection with the Plan will be returned to the treasury, reduce taxpayer burden and allow for more investment.

to this:

The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall recognize that much of the 60% of discretionary spending now going into the environmentally destructive project of militarism can be moved to environmental protection, and that innovative public and other financing . . . .   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060518153110.png&hash=39d587c31b7f7e66b30d7e59bb560e2ad0662eee)


2. Change this:

The Plan for a Green New Deal (and the draft legislation) shall be developed in order to achieve the following goals, in each case in no longer than 10 years from the start of execution of the Plan:

-- 100% of national power generation from renewable sources;
-- building a national, energy-efficient, “smart” grid;
-- upgrading every residential and industrial building for state-of-the-art energy efficiency, comfort and safety;
-- decarbonizing the manufacturing, agricultural and other industries;
-- decarbonizing, repairing and improving transportation and other infrastructure;
-- funding massive investment in the drawdown and capture of greenhouse gases;
-- making “green” technology, industry, expertise, products and services a major export of the United States, with the aim of becoming the undisputed international leader in helping other countries transition to completely carbon neutral economies and bringing about a global Green New Deal.

by adding this:

-- a major transition away from the environmental destruction of war and war-preparations, including the closure of most of the U.S. military bases abroad and within the United States and the thorough cleanup of the land and water in those locations. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060518153110.png&hash=39d587c31b7f7e66b30d7e59bb560e2ad0662eee)


CLICK HERE TO ADD YOUR NAME AND COMMENTS TO THE PETITION. (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/ask-alexandria-ocasio-cortez-to-include-the-military-in-the-green-new-deal)

Background:
> Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: The Green New Deal (https://ocasio2018.com/green-new-deal?link_id=4&can_id=f6a3d966836d5b36db494f1237d9b97d&source=email-include-the-military-in-the-green-new-deal)
> World BEYOND War: War Destroys the Environment (https://worldbeyondwar.org/environment/?link_id=5&can_id=f6a3d966836d5b36db494f1237d9b97d&source=email-include-the-military-in-the-green-new-deal)
> World BEYOND War: We Need $2 Trillion a Year for Other Things (https://worldbeyondwar.org/2trillion/?link_id=6&can_id=f6a3d966836d5b36db494f1237d9b97d&source=email-include-the-military-in-the-green-new-deal)

https://youtu.be/mDiY8p8AAoU

World BEYOND War is a global network of volunteers, activists, and allied organizations advocating for the abolition of the very institution of war. Our success is driven by a people-powered movement –
support our work for a culture of peace.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 13, 2018, 04:16:22 pm
Thu, 12/13/2018 - 15:36

In Stinging Rebuke To Trump 🦀, Senate Votes To End Support For Saudi War

SNIPPETS:

Quote
“I hope … we send a loud and powerful message by passing this resolution. That we’re going to bring peace to that country and that the United States Congress is going to reassert its constitutional authority to make the body that makes war not the president,” Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185038-16442135.gif&hash=52927992b43007fa5c5eb6ffcb453ae29948c356), one of the sponsors of the resolution, told reporters. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221017161839.png&hash=7d34712243960aa20883775dad728bc2115ed6fe)


Quote
However, beyond sending a symbolic message, the vote is largely moot as on Wednesday, as part of the Farm Bill passage (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-280515145049.png&hash=84e87515e750391c1f1bca6d6ae06485972bfa81)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85), the House 🐉🦕🦖(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) voted to block members from forcing a war powers vote this year. 🤬 Still, the Senate vote Thursday underscored the depth of frustration with Saudi Arabia on Capitol Hill, as well as the escalating gap between the White House and Congress on the relationship between the U.S. and the kingdom. 👍

Read more:

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-12-13/stinging-rebuke-trump-senate-votes-end-support-saudi-war

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on December 23, 2018, 01:51:35 pm
Gideon Levy has No Sympathy for Colonists 🦍 as a Group

December 21, 2018

Gideon Levy: all colonists and all Israelis share responsibility for the occupation and apartheid system in Palestine. There is sympathy for individuals, but there is no symmetry: the power is on the Israeli side

https://youtu.be/0IHHggk988k

Story Transcript

SHIR HEVER: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Shir Hever in Heidelberg, Germany.

Gideon Levy is one of Israel’s most renowned journalists, and also one of the most controversial. In 2014, after publishing a Haaretz newspaper criticizing Israeli pilots for bombarding civilian neighborhoods in the Gaza Strip, he was assigned bodyguards because of numerous death threats which he received. And this week, Gideon Levy has once again caused an uproar in Israel when he published in Haaretz a piece with the title I Feel No Sympathy For the Settlers. Levy argued that Israeli colonists in the West Bank are instrumentalizing Palestinian resistance, and used every murdered colonist as an excuse to expand land appropriation from Palestinians. Indeed, on Sunday, the Israeli Minister of Education Naftali Bennett did just that.

NAFTALI BENNETT: We are raising today a bill to regulate the colonization, which we call the law of fabric of life, because the residents of Judea and Samaria are not second-rate citizens. As in the dawn of Zionism, whenever there is terror, we have to build. We will achieve peace with the neighbors. How? When they will despair of the hope to get out of this country. And how? When we build more settlements, more schools, more kindergartens.

SHIR HEVER: [Serious] responses to Levy’s article were [not late] to follow, including calls on the Haaretz newspaper to fire him. We are joined by Gideon Levy now, so we can discuss this article. Gideon Levy is a prominent Israeli journalist, and author of the weekly column The Twilight Zone in the Israeli paper Haaretz. He’s also an editorial board member of Haaretz. Thank you very much, Gideon, for joining us.

GIDEON LEVY: Thank you, Shir. It’s my pleasure.

SHIR HEVER: Honestly, when I read your article, I also felt uneasy. There are extreme right and violent organizations which promote the colonization of Palestine, but not everyone born in an Israeli illegal colony should have their lives forfeit because of the crime of the state of Israel. Did you not write this article in order to cause a provocation?

GIDEON LEVY: No, not at all. And I wouldn’t write it if the settlers themselves and their leadership wouldn’t behave in such a cynical way. You know, hours after the attack on this pregnant woman, hours after it, immediately they took some caravans, and with their leadership–not just, you know, young people from the margins, but with their leadership, the official leadership, and brought it to what’s called an illegal outpost, which was already evacuated, declaring that this is their answer for the terroristic attack. If they are using pain and tragedy, human tragedy, and bloodshed in such a cynical way for their real estate ambitions and interests, I have the right to tell them if this is your behavior, I have no sympathy to you.

SHIR HEVER: I think my problem is when you say ‘they,’ as if all of the colonists in the West Bank are one unit. The attack on this pregnant woman that you were talking about, she has actually survived, but her baby did not. And the baby never had a political opinion, and never made a choice. And certainly the baby is not at fault of building these caravans. In a way, aren’t you actually helping the colonies with this kind of argument, as if all of the colonists are just one unit, and murdering a colonist is a political act which can justify in their own eyes the land appropriation and dispossessing of Palestinians?

GIDEON LEVY: Well, first of all, if you take it to this resolution, then, needless to say, no baby in the world deserves to be killed. I mean, that’s not a question at all. If they have political views, even if they’re responsible or not, nobody should be a victim of murders, of killings. And for sure no innocent babies, helpless babies. This goes without saying.

But yes, we can generalize the settlers–like, by the way, I think we can generalize the Israelis. Because as we, all of us, I think, all of us Israelis carry responsibility for the occupation project, whole apartheid system, because we all are part of this machinery even if we individually oppose it. But finally, we are part of it. I always say, I’m a settler. I’m part of this project, even though I dedicated my life to fight against it. But I’m still part of it. I cannot break away from the responsibility.

Because the settlers, it’s much more than this. It’s not only about political views. It’s not only about talking. It’s about their existence there. Once you go and live in an occupied territory, which contradicts international law, once you do it, once you continue to do it, you define yourself politically, morally, and legally. And you take a very terrible road by sitting there. So yes, all of them violate international law. All of them. And all of them should be [viewed] to criticism.

SHIR HEVER: Well, let’s take this idea of generalization perhaps even further. The Israeli government made several statements in the last few days that they believe that confiscating more land every time there is a Palestinian attack will deter Palestinians from resisting the occupation. But what would happen if this logic would be universally accepted as a kind of medieval justice system? But then, also, whenever a Palestinian is killed by Israeli forces, Palestinians would receive some of their land back. What would you say to this kind of double sympathy logic, as opposed to the no sympathy in your article?

GIDEON LEVY: You portray a theoretical picture of equality, and there is no equality between Israel and Palestine, as you know. So this cannot happen, not only because it’s far fetched on both sides, because nothing is equal and there is no symmetry. Wherever you touch it. There Is no symmetry about anything, by the way.

Now, getting back to what you say, the fact that Israel and the settlers are claiming that this is the Zionistic response to terrorism, mainly the [revanche] for terrorism will be new settlements. This has some political aspects, because the first time the settlers admit that their project is a punishment, and not–has nothing to do with the security of Israel. Has nothing to do with your political or religious belief.

Finally, it’s a way to punish the Palestinians and take revanche over them. OK, that’s quite a progressive step, because once we realize that it’s all about paining more the Palestinians, taking revanche more, antagonizing more, so it’s much easier to oppose this project.

SHIR HEVER: Well, that’s a very good point to end our conversation. Thank you very much, Gideon, for joining us.

GIDEON LEVY: Thank you, Shir.

SHIR HEVER: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/gideon-levy-has-no-sympathy-for-colonists-as-a-group
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 09, 2019, 06:31:47 pm
Longtime Reporter Leaves NBC Calling Media a “Trump Circus”

BY Amy Goodman & Juan González, Democracy Now!

PUBLISHED January 9, 2019

“Prisoners of Donald Trump.” That’s how longtime NBC reporter and analyst William Arkin described the mainstream media in a scathing letter last week announcing he would be leaving the network, accusing the media of warmongering while ignoring the “creeping fascism of homeland security.” He issued the blistering critique after a 30-year relationship with NBC, calling for “Trump-free” media days and a reckoning about how the network encourages a state of perpetual warfare. We speak with Arkin, whose award-winning reporting has appeared in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post. He is the author of many books, including Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State

Transcript

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: “Prisoners of Donald Trump.” That’s how longtime NBC reporter and analyst William Arkin described the mainstream media in a scathing letter last week announcing he would be leaving the network, accusing the media of warmongering while ignoring the, quote, “creeping fascism of homeland security.” Arkin issued the blistering critique after a 30-year relationship with NBC, calling for Trump-free media days and a reckoning about how the network encourages a state of perpetual warfare.

In the memo, he writes, quote, “I find it disheartening that we do not report the failures of the generals and national security leaders. I find it shocking that we essentially condone continued American bumbling in the Middle East and now Africa through our ho-hum reporting.”

He continues, quote, “Of course [Trump] is an ignorant and incompetent impostor. And yet I’m alarmed at how quick NBC is to mechanically argue the contrary, to be in favor of policies that just spell more conflict and more war.”

AMY GOODMAN: Well, for more, we’re joined by William Arkin, longtime NBCreporter and analyst. His award-winning reporting has appeared in The New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post. He’s the author of many books, including Top Secret America: The Rise of the New American Security State.

Welcome to Democracy Now!

WILLIAM ARKIN: Thanks, Amy, for having me on.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you left NBC with this explosive memo, that not only indicts NBC, your network, says basically NBC, they might not like this, but doesn’t stand out among the crowd of corporate networks in dealing with this issue of perpetual war.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Everything I said in this letter, which was a goodbye letter to my colleagues at NBC, applies to all of the mainstream networks, applies to CNN and Fox, as well. So, I’m not really singling out NBC. I was just most familiar with it.

And my decision not to renew my contract was really one of thinking to myself that I wanted to stand back and think more about what we needed to do in order to change our national security policy. We’ve been at war now for 18 years. I don’t think anybody could argue that there’s a country in the Middle East that’s safer today than it was in 2001. The generals and the national security leadership that runs the country, and now also is the commentators and the analysts who populate the news media, really are not people who we can look to as saying, “Wow! They won a war. They avoided a war. They achieved some magnificent objective.” In fact, they are the custodians and the architects of perpetual warfare. And it seemed to me like there needed to be both a different voice and a solution. And I want to step back myself and think about how we can end this era of perpetual war and how we can build some real security, both in the United States and abroad.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I’m wondering, in terms of your concerns about the coverage of President Trump and of the Trump era and your concern about the fixation—and it really is an obsession, almost—of all of the networks with covering him on not just a daily, but an hourly, minute-by-minute basis.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, let me just say, I’m here at Democracy Now!, and I shouldn’t bite the hand that feeds me, but you started your broadcast today making fun of the president and his remarks last night about the border. It’s almost impossible to avoid.

Donald Trump runs a circus. Every day, he gets up, he unzips his pants, and we go, “Oh, my god! What is he doing?” And then the next day he repeats, and we repeat.

So, I think that, to some degree, he sucks the oxygen out of the debate. He changes the discourse. And we haven’t figured out yet in the news media, every part of the news media, how to get beyond that. So, I’m not arguing only about the mainstream. I think everyone is stuck in the Donald Trump circus.

AMY GOODMAN: I mean, I have to take issue with you saying “making fun,” because “fun” is the one word I wouldn’t use. But, yes, we did focus on what he had to say. The more the networks broadcast directly what he has to say, this is the information that gets out to the American people, and it is so critical to take on each point. In that case, for example, that immigrants commit more crimes than natural-born Americans, which isn’t true. And it’s absolutely critical, each time those comments are made, to counter them.

But let’s get to the issue of who populates the network TV shows, which is validating an issue you have criticized for so long and investigated for so long: the national security state.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, you know, I’ve been associated with television for 30 years. I’ve been a journalist for about the same period of time, but it’s not my background. My background was in Army intelligence, and then, thereafter, I wrote books about the military. And I was called upon to be a journalist because there was a desire on the part of the Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post and NBC to have experts helping people to understand an incredibly complex issue—national security.

In those days, when I started, we used to have civilian experts on the air, people who weren’t former government officials, people who weren’t retired generals, people who might be university professors or activists who worked in nongovernmental organizations or experts who were associated with think tanks. Something happened post-9/11, something happened in this intervening years, in which those people virtually disappeared from the airwaves, and we don’t see as many anymore.

And, in fact, we increasingly see journalists who are the commentators on what’s going on. Now, that’s a tricky position, because journalists are supposed to be unbiased, but also, at the same time, they’re supposed to be explaining to the public what’s going on with inside information.

But the end result of it is that we become shallower and shallower in our coverage, particularly in an area like national security. We’ve just become so shallow that we’re not really able even to see the truth, which is that we’re at war right now in nine countries around the world where we’re bombing, and we hardly report any of it on a day-to-day basis.

So, to me, the crisis is that we condone perpetual war by virtue of our lack of reporting and investigation, and then, second, we fill the airwaves or we fill the newspapers with stories about the immediate and don’t give an adequate amount of space to deeper investigations or what I would say would be net assessment investigations of what really is going on.


I mean, whether we should or shouldn’t withdraw troops from Syria, whether we should or shouldn’t withdraw troops from Afghanistan, whether we should or we shouldn’t improve our relations with Russia, whether we should or we shouldn’t pursue denuclearization in the Korean Peninsula—all of these questions deserve a high degree of investigation and reporting, beyond the question of whether or not Donald Trump is a buffoon. And we just don’t do it. We’re just not doing it.

And so, to me, I’m not necessarily interested in prescribing the why. I’m interested in changing the culture so that we can, in fact, better inform ourselves about national security, so that the citizenry can play a more powerful role in influencing our national security policy.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: I wanted to expand on that. Back in the ’70s, the old socialist economists Baran and Sweezy used to talk about the huge percentage of the American population that owed its livelihood directly to the defense industry. Right? And one of the things in your Top Secret America exposés is that the Cold War ended, and the threats, supposedly, in terms of state threats, receded to the United States, but yet, obviously, the military maintains its huge spread across the world. And more importantly, through homeland security, the militarization internally of the country, as you point out, has gotten to the point where people don’t even know how extensive the homeland security apparatus is of this country and the number of people that have top-secret clearance.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Yes.

JUAN GONZÁLEZ: So, it seems to me that the number of people working for this apparatus has actually grown, despite the fact that the threats, the existential threats, to the United States have receded.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, there’s no question that the national security establishment has grown and has become far more powerful than it ever was. But here’s the change. We’ve shifted from the Industrial Age to the Information Age. And consequently, we’ve also shifted from the dominance of the military-industrial complex, if you will, to a much more insidious and much more difficult-to-diagnose information complex. So, the advent of contractors, the advent of a professional military, which means that the military itself touches fewer and fewer lives in America, all of those work together to make the national security state more and more embedded within our society, but yet, at the same time, more difficult to get to, more difficult to understand.

So, most people would be surprised to learn, for instance, that Amazon is one of the largest defense contractors, that they’re building the cloud and they’re building the data centers which support the intelligence community and support the military. And there are other civilian companies, that we associate with being civilians, who are also terrific beneficiaries of the military’s largesse.

So, to me, to diagnose properly where we stand today, the point of the Top Secret America investigation was to show the wild growth of all areas of national security and this new invention of homeland security, if you will, but at the same time to point out that it wasn’t something that was necessarily segregated from our society, it was more and more embedded within our society, and that that made it more and more difficult to analyze properly and to do something about.

AMY GOODMAN: So, you talked about the people who populate the networks as pundits, and you’ve been a fierce critic of the national security state, or at least understanding who it is who is explaining things to us. Reading from Politico, “Former CIA Director John Brennan … the latest superspook,” they said, “to be reborn as a TV newsie. He just cashed in at NBC News as a ‘senior national security and intelligence analyst’ and served his first expert views … on Meet the Press. The Brennan acquisition seeks to elevate NBC to spook parity with CNN, which employs former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper and former CIA Director Michael Hayden in a similar capacity. Other, lesser-known national security veterans thrive under TV’s grow lights. Almost too numerous to list, they include Chuck Rosenberg, former acting DEA administrator, chief of staff for FBI Director James Comey, and counselor to former FBI Director Robert Mueller; Frank Figliuzzi, former chief of FBI counterintelligence; Juan Zarate, deputy national security adviser under Bush, at NBC; and Fran Townsend, homeland security adviser under Bush.” And it goes on and on and on.

These are now the pundits. And so, when you have a situation like President Trump announcing he will immediately withdraw U.S. troops from Syria and halve the troops that are in Afghanistan, you have this massive attack on him that’s actually led by the permanent national security state under the guise of pundits on television.

WILLIAM ARKIN: Well, I think that you’ve—I mean, what you said stands for itself, Amy. But I would add to it that I think the real crisis is that when we have a panel discussion on television, in the mainstream press, and even in the mainstream newspapers, we don’t populate that panel with people who are in opposition. We have a single war party in the United States, and it’s the only one that is given voice. And so, really, the crisis is not so much that there are experienced government officials speaking out; the problem is that there aren’t critics who are sitting next to them saying that “You’re full of it.” And so, to me, we need to balance that.

And I think that probably because of the phenomenon of Donald Trump—let’s just be honest about it—really what we see on TV now is former Obama administration officials masquerading as analysts who are nonpartisan, when in fact they are partisan. And indeed we see fewer retired generals and fewer retired admirals, who sometimes are useful in terms of explaining the profession of arms and the conduct of military operations, in favor of these political figures who have a partisan view.

I just don’t think the American public gets well served by the fact that there isn’t a broad range of opinions on those panels. I want to see peaceniks. I want to see academics. I want to see historians. I want them to as much have a voice, in terms of understanding what’s going on, as I do see a former Obama administration official.

AMY GOODMAN: We have break, but we’re going to come back to this conversation and talk, among other issues, about one of your statements—”don’t even get me started with the FBI: What? We now lionize this historically destructive institution?’’—and much more. We’re speaking to William Arkin, a longtime NBC reporter and analyst who just left the network, penning a letter critiquing the network for supporting perpetual warfare, his criticism, talking about the creeping fascism of homeland security. Stay with us.

Yes, I’ll Chip In

Video of interview at link below:

https://truthout.org/video/longtime-reporter-leaves-nbc-media-is-trump-circus-encourages-perpetual-war/

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 09, 2019, 08:58:00 pm
JAN 09, 2019

By Nick Turse / TomDispatch

The Mystery Military Bases the Pentagon 🦍 Doesn't Want You to Know About

SNIPPET:

The U.S. military is finally withdrawing (or not) from its base at al-Tanf. You know, the place that the Syrian government long claimed was a training ground for Islamic State (ISIS) fighters; the land corridor just inside Syria, near both the Iraqi and Jordanian borders, that Russia has called a terrorist hotbed (while floating the idea of jointly administering it with the United States); the location of a camp where hundreds of U.S. Marines joined Special Operations forces last year; an outpost that U.S. officials claimed was the key not only to defeating ISIS, but also, according to General Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. forces in the Middle East, to countering “the malign activities that Iran and their various proxies and surrogates would like to pursue.” You know, that al-Tanf.

Within hours of President Trump’s announcement of a withdrawal of U.S. forces from Syria, equipment at that base was already being inventoried for removal. And just like that, arguably the most important American garrison in Syria was (maybe) being struck from the Pentagon’s books — except, as it happens, al-Tanf was never actually on the Pentagon’s books. Opened in 2015 and, until recently, home to hundreds of U.S. troops, it was one of the many military bases that exist somewhere between light and shadow, an acknowledged foreign outpost that somehow never actually made it onto the Pentagon’s official inventory of bases.

Officially, the Department of Defense (DoD) maintains 4,775 “sites,” spread across all 50 states, eight U.S. territories, and 45 foreign countries. A total of 514 of these outposts are located overseas, according to the Pentagon’s worldwide property portfolio. Just to start down a long list, these include bases on the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia, in Djibouti on the Horn of Africa, as well as in Peru and Portugal, the United Arab Emirates, and the United Kingdom. But the most recent version of that portfolio, issued in early 2018 and known as the Base Structure Report (BSR), doesn’t include any mention of al-Tanf. Or, for that matter, any other base in Syria. Or Iraq. Or Afghanistan. Or Niger. Or Tunisia. Or Cameroon. Or Somalia. Or any number of locales where such military outposts are known to exist and even, unlike in Syria, to be expanding.

According to David Vine, author of Base Nation: How U.S. Military Bases Abroad Harm America and the World, there could be hundreds of similar off-the-books bases around the world. “The missing sites are a reflection of the lack of transparency involved in the system of what I still estimate to be around 800 U.S. bases outside the 50 states and Washington, D.C., that have been encircling the globe since World War II,” says Vine, who is also a founding member of the recently established Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition, a group of military analysts from across the ideological spectrum who advocate shrinking the U.S. military’s global “footprint.”

Such off-the-books bases are off the books for a reason. The Pentagon doesn’t want to talk about them. “I spoke to the press officer who is responsible for the Base Structure Report and she has nothing to add and no one available to discuss further at this time,” Pentagon spokesperson Lieutenant Colonel Michelle Baldanza told TomDispatch when asked about the Defense Department’s many mystery bases.

“Undocumented bases are immune to oversight by the public and often even Congress,” Vine explains. “Bases are a physical manifestation of U.S. foreign and military policy, so off-the-books bases mean the military and executive branch are deciding such policy without public debate, frequently spending hundreds of millions or billions of dollars and potentially getting the U.S. involved in wars and conflicts about which most of the country knows nothing.”

Where Are They?

The Overseas Base Realignment and Closure Coalition notes that the United Statespossesses up to 95% of the world’s foreign military bases, while countries like France, Russia, and the United Kingdom have perhaps 10-20 foreign outposts each. China has just one.

The Department of Defense even boasts that its “locations” include 164 countries. Put another way, it has a military presence of some sort in approximately 84% of the nations on this planet — or at least the DoD briefly claimed this. After TomDispatch inquired about the number on a new webpage designed to tell the Pentagon’s “story” to the general public, it was quickly changed. “We appreciate your diligence in getting to the bottom of this,” said Lieutenant Colonel Baldanza. “Thanks to your observations, we have updated defense.gov to say ‘more than 160.’”

The progressive changes made to the Defense Department’s “Our Story” webpage as a result of questions from TomDispatch.

What the Pentagon still doesn’t say is how it defines a “location.” The number 164 does roughly track with the Department of Defense’s current manpower statistics, which show personnel deployments of varying sizes in 166 “overseas” locales — including some nations with token numbers of U.S. military personnel and others, like Iraq and Syria, where the size of the force was obviously far larger, even if unlisted at the time of the assessment. (The Pentagon recently claimed that there were 5,200 troops in Iraq and at least 2,000 troops in Syria although that number should now markedly shrink.) The Defense Department’s “overseas” tally, however, also lists troops in U.S. territories like American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and Wake Island. Dozens of soldiers, according to the Pentagon, are also deployed to the country of “Akrotiri” (which is actually a village on the island of Santorini in Greece) and thousands more are based in “unknown” locations.

In the latest report, the number of those “unknown” troops exceeds 44,000.

Official Defense Department manpower statistics show U.S. forces deployed to the nation of “Akrotiri.”

The annual cost of deploying U.S. military personnel overseas, as well as maintaining and running those foreign bases, tops out at an estimated $150 billion annually, according to the Overseas Bases Realignment and Closure Coalition. The price tag for the outposts alone adds up to about one-third of that total. “U.S. bases abroad cost upwards of $50 billion per year to build and maintain, which is money that could be used to address pressing needs at home in education, health care, housing, and infrastructure,” Vine points out.

Perhaps you won’t be surprised to learn that the Pentagon is also somewhat fuzzy about just where its troops are stationed. The new Defense Department website, for instance, offered a count of “4,800+ defense sites” around the world. After TomDispatch inquired about this total and how it related to the official count of 4,775 sites listed in the BSR, the website was changed to read “approximately 4,800 Defense Sites.”

“Thank you for pointing out the discrepancy. As we transition to the new site, we are working on updating information,” wrote Lieutenant Colonel Baldanza. “Please refer to the Base Structure Report which has the latest numbers.”

In the most literal sense, the Base Structure Report does indeed have the latest numbers — but their accuracy is another matter. “The number of bases listed in the BSR has long born little relation to the actual number of U.S. bases outside the United States,” says Vine. “Many, many well-known and secretive bases have long been left off the list.”

One prime example is the constellation of outposts that the U.S. has built across Africa. The official BSR inventory lists only a handful of sites there — on Ascension Island as well as in Djibouti, Egypt, and Kenya. In reality, though, there are many more outposts in many more African countries.

A recent investigation by the Intercept, based on documents obtained from U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) via the Freedom of Information Act, revealed a network of 34 bases heavily clustered in the north and west of that continent as well as in the Horn of Africa. AFRICOM’s “strategic posture” consists of larger “enduring” outposts, including two forward operating sites (FOSes), 12 cooperative security locations (CSLs), and 20 more austere sites known as contingency locations (CLs).

The Pentagon’s official inventory does include the two FOSes: Ascension Island and the crown jewel of Washington’s African bases, Camp Lemonnier in Djibouti, which expanded from 88 acres in the early 2000s to nearly 600 acres today. The Base Structure Report is, however, missing a CSL in that same country, Chabelley Airfield, a lower-profile outpost located about 10 kilometers away that has served as a drone hub for operations in Africa and the Middle East.

The official Pentagon tally also mentions a site that goes by the confusing moniker of “NSA Bahrain-Kenya.” AFRICOM had previously described it as a collection of warehouses built in the 1980s at the airport and seaport of Mombasa, Kenya, but it now appears on that command’s 2018 list as a CSL. Missing, however, is another Kenyan base, Camp Simba, mentioned in a 2013 internal Pentagon study of secret drone operations in Somalia and Yemen. At least two manned surveillance aircraft were based there at the time. Simba, a longtime Navy-run facility, is currently operated by the Air Force’s 475th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron, part of the 435th Air Expeditionary Wing.

Personnel from that same air wing can be found at yet another outpost that doesn’t appear in the Base Structure Report, this one on the opposite side of the continent. The BSR states that it doesn’t list specific information on “non-U.S. locations” not at least 10 acres in size or worth at least $10 million. However, the base in question — Air Base 201 in Agadez, Niger — already has a $100 million construction price tag, a sum soon to be eclipsed by the cost of operating the facility: about $30 million a year. By 2024, when the present 10-year agreement for use of the base ends, its construction and operating costs will have reached about $280 million.

Also missing from the BSR are outposts in nearby Cameroon, including a longtime base in Douala, a drone airfield in the remote town of Garoua, and a facility known as Salak. That site, according to a 2017 investigation by the Intercept, the research firm Forensic Architecture, and Amnesty International, has been used by U.S. personnel and private contractors for drone surveillance and training missions and by allied Cameroonian forces for illegal imprisonment and torture.

According to Vine, keeping America’s African bases secret is advantageous to Washington. It protects allies on that continent from possible domestic opposition to the presence of American troops, he points out, while helping to ensure that there will be no domestic debate in the U.S. over such spending and the military commitments involved. “It’s important for U.S. citizens to know where their troops are based in Africa and elsewhere around the world,” he told TomDispatch, “because that troop presence costs the U.S. billions of dollars every year and because the U.S. is involved, or potentially involved, in wars and conflicts that could spiral out of control.”

Those Missing Bases

Africa is hardly the only place where the Pentagon’s official list doesn’t match up well with reality. For close to two decades, the Base Structure Report has ignored bases of all sorts in America’s active war zones. At the height of the American occupation of Iraq, for instance, the United States had 505 bases there, ranging from small outposts to mega-sized facilities. None appeared on the Pentagon’s official rolls.

In Afghanistan, the numbers were even higher. As TomDispatch reported in 2012, the U.S.-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) had about 550 bases in that country. If you had added ISAF checkpoints — small baselets used to secure roads and villages — to the count of mega-bases, forward operating bases, combat outposts, and patrol bases, the number reached an astounding 750. And counting all foreign military installations of every type — including logistical, administrative, and support facilities — hiked ISAF Joint Command’s official count to 1,500 sites. America’s significant share of them was, however, also mysteriously absent from the Defense Department’s official tally.

There are now far fewer such facilities in Afghanistan — and the numbers may drop further in the months ahead as troop levels decrease. But the existence of Camp Morehead, Forward Operating Base Fenty, Tarin Kowt Airfield, Camp Dahlke West, and Bost Airfield, as well as Camp Shorab, a small installation occupying what was once the site of much larger twin bases known as Camp Leatherneck and Camp Bastion, is indisputable. Yet none of them has ever appeared in the Base Structure Report.

Similarly, while there are no longer 500-plus U.S. bases in Iraq, in recent years, as American troops returned to that country, some garrisons have either been reconstituted or built from scratch. These include the Besmaya Range Complex, Firebase Sakheem, Firebase Um Jorais, and Al Asad Air Base, as well as Qayyarah Airfield West — a base 40 miles south of Mosul that’s better known as “Q-West.” Again, you won’t find any of them listed in the Pentagon’s official count.

These days, it’s even difficult to obtain accurate manpower numbers for the military personnel in America’s war zones, let alone the number of bases in each of them. As Vine explains, “The military keeps the figures secret to some extent to hide the base presence from its adversaries. Because it is probably not hard to spot these bases in places like Syria and Iraq, however, the secrecy is mostly to prevent domestic debate about the money, danger, and death involved, as well as to avoid diplomatic tensions and international inquiries.”

If stifling domestic debate through information control is the Pentagon’s aim, it’s been doing a fine job for years of deflecting questions about its global posture, or what the late TomDispatch regular Chalmers Johnson called America’s “empire of bases.”

In mid-October, TomDispatch asked Heather Babb, another Pentagon spokesperson, for details about the outposts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria that were absent from the Base Structure Report, as well as about those missing African bases. Among the other questions put to Babb: Could the Pentagon offer a simple count — if not a list — of all its outposts? Did it have a true count of overseas facilities, even if it hadn’t been released to the public — a list, that is, which actually did what the Base Structure Report only purports to do? October and November passed without answers.

In December, in response to follow-up requests for information, Babb responded in a fashion firmly in line with the Pentagon’s well-worn policy of keeping American taxpayers in the dark about the bases they pay for — no matter the theoretical difficulty of denying the existence of outposts that stretch from Agadez in Niger to Mosul in Iraq. “I have nothing to add,” she explained, “to the information and criteria that is included in the report.”

President Trump’s decision to withdraw American troops from Syria means that the 2019 Base Structure Report will likely be the most accurate in years. For the first time since 2015, the Pentagon’s inventory of outposts will no longer be missing the al-Tanf garrison (or then again, maybe it will). But that still potentially leaves hundreds of off-the-books bases absent from the official rolls. Consider it one outpost down and who knows how many to go.

Nick Turse / TomDispatch

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-mystery-military-bases-the-pentagon-doesnt-want-you-to-know-about/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 13, 2019, 03:41:25 pm
Cheney’s Lies Left Middle East in Flames 🔥 - Film Review of “Vice” with Wilkerson and Jay (2/2)

https://youtu.be/fWCBh77zm4s

TheRealNews ✨

Published on Jan 12, 2019

Larry Wilkerson tells the story of Powell’s fateful speech to the UN that prepared the way for the invasion; he’s asked why he and Powell didn’t quit - Col. Lawrence Wilkerson joins TRNN’s Paul Jay

https://therealnews.com/series/vice-movie-review

Visit https://therealnews.com for more stories and help support our work by donating at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 14, 2019, 12:31:46 pm
(https://imageproxy.themaven.net/https%3A%2F%2Fs3-us-west-2.amazonaws.com%2Fmaven-user-photos%2Fmishtalk%2Feconomics%2FzmfATcSa4EegwR7v_znq6Q%2FOmMr5tK9KEmF0HPZSEby-Q?w=1360&q=20&h=990&auto=format&fit=crop&crop=focalpoint&fp-x=0.5&fp-y=0.5&fp-z=1&fp-debug=false)

Bolton, a Seriously Deranged Madman, Sought Options to Strike Iran

by Mish

John Bolton 🦍, Trump’s (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F809_84688966.jpeg&hash=7f3e84eea23fef901b7df618784dc2005290f591) national security adviser, had asked for military options to strike Iran, rattling the Pentagon.

The Wall Street Journal reports White House Sought Options to Strike Iran.

President Trump’s National Security Council asked the Pentagon to provide the White House with military options to strike Iran last year, generating concern at the Pentagon and State Department, current and former U.S. officials said.

The request, which hasn’t been previously reported, came after militants fired three mortars into Baghdad’s sprawling diplomatic quarter, home to the U.S. Embassy, on a warm night in early September. The shells—launched by a group aligned with Iran—landed in an open lot and harmed no one.

But they triggered unusual alarm in Washington, where Mr. Trump’s national security team led by John Bolton 😈 conducted a series of meetings to discuss a forceful American response, including what many saw as the unusual request for options to strike Iran.

Quote
“It definitely rattled people,” a former senior U.S. administration official said of the request. “People were shocked. It was mind-boggling how cavalier they were about hitting Iran.”

The Pentagon complied with the National Security Council’s request to develop options for striking Iran, the officials said. But it isn’t clear if the proposals were provided to the White House, whether Mr. Trump knew of the request or whether serious plans for a U.S. strike against Iran took shape at that time.

Mr. Bolton’s request reflects the administration’s more confrontational approach toward Tehran, one that he has pushed since taking up the post last April.

As a think-tank scholar and Fox News commentator, Mr. Bolton repeatedly urged the U.S. to attack Iran, including in a 2015 New York Times op-ed titled, “To stop Iran’s bomb, bomb Iran.”

Bolton Seriously Deranged

Bolton has learned nothing from Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, or Syria. As a seriously deranged madman in precisely the wrong place, he a dangerous threat to US and global security.

Mike "Mish" Shedlock

https://moneymaven.io/mishtalk/economics/bolton-a-seriously-deranged-madman-sought-options-to-strike-iran-9Zx1-pW9AEWSfuffdZekIA/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 25, 2019, 04:54:22 pm
(https://dingo.care2.com/c2p/GlobalZero/GZ500x600.png)

War "Game" computer figures out that Nuclear War = (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-070814193155.png&hash=144ce9330e49ee84060db8753a8db69c39a14913)

https://youtu.be/NHWjlCaIrQo

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 31, 2019, 07:54:58 pm
Will Trump Start a War to Stay President?

https://youtu.be/6F_NqpnpTa8


Thom Hartmann Program
Published on Jan 30, 2019

Is Donald Trump planning to start a war so he can win the 2020 election on the same "War time President" slogan George W Bush used in 2004? 

2:00 in to this clip, a caller questions whether Trump has his sights set on a military conflict in Venezuela and the evidence looks frightening.

What do you think? 

Does Trump need a war to be re-elected in 2020?

► More on the Venezuelan Crisis: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5gNz_FycX94d5RVcwvoGrNe4Xiv04m7a

SUPPORT THE PROGRAM
► Join us on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/thomhartmann where you can also watch a re-run of the three hour program at any time
 
AUDIO PODCASTS
► Subscribe today: http://www.thomhartmann.com/podcast
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 31, 2019, 10:39:11 pm
Many Countries at UN Oppose Trump Interference in Venezuela

January 29, 2019

Larry Wilkerson joins Paul Jay as they discuss the special meeting of the Security Council that took place on January 26, where many small countries stood up against American pressure and refused to recognize Juan Guaido as president of Venezuela, and defended the UN principle of non-interference

https://youtu.be/3Yvuapn5jEc

https://therealnews.com/stories/many-countries-at-un-oppose-trump-interference-in-venezuela
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 04, 2019, 08:38:36 pm
Quote
America screwed up years ago, when they tried to manipulate Venezuela to favor the corporate oil barons, (mostly from the U.S.). This went back to at least 1969 with Venezuelan president Rafael Caldera. A lot of resistance developed in the 1990's, and the U.S. got involved in the 1999 uprising.

The U.S. lost, and Hugo Chavez became president. When Chavez came to power, Venezuela saw sweeping and radical shifts in social policy, moving away from the government officially embracing a "free market" economy, (which very few in Venezuelans shared in),  and Neo-liberal reform principles and towards  socialist income redistributions, (which the American oil company Barons didn't like),  and social welfare  programs.

The U.S. tried again to have an overthrow of Hugo Chavez in 2002, but lost that battle too.  The U.S. involvement simply hardened a lot of Venezuelans to adopt Chavez's idea of governing.  The U.S. sanctions since has further radicalized many of the Venezuelans.

The U.S. could have approached Venezuela differently, by accepting and working with their government , instead of sending the CIA there to cause trouble, as they did in 11 other Latin American countries over the past 50 years. Venezuela is what it is today, no thanks to the U.S.

Of course, the U.S. 🦍😈 is rather notorious for its idiotic foreign policies.

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-02-04/russian-policy-venezuela-driven-oil-giant-rosneft-report?commentId=aac5f1d3-7ebf-45a8-be74-05b0402b435f
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 06, 2019, 01:27:06 pm
 February 02, 2019

SNIPPET: The U.S. and its allies have decided to throw their weight behind yet another coup attempt in Venezuela. As usual, they (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-241013183046.jpeg&hash=51c9c4f17e747698c76c65c7c1814eff4f32c400) claim that their objectives are democracy and freedom (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718210558.gif&hash=9234ac544277d3924347404eb52489dfe64e3ca4). Nothing could be farther from the truth. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Full eye opening, truth filled article: 👍

THE REAL REASON THE U.S. WANTS REGIME CHANGE IN VENEZUELA (http://stormcloudsgathering.com/geopolitics/venezuela/)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 25, 2019, 09:48:00 pm
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The Coup Has Failed 👍 & Now the U.S. 🦍 Is Looking to Wage War: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Speaks Out

41,952 views

https://youtu.be/7dim9uOsDuI

Democracy Now!

Published on Feb 25, 2019

https://democracynow.org - Venezuela’s opposition is calling on the United States and allied nations to consider using military force to topple the government of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. U.S. Vice President Mike Pence 👹 is heading to Bogotá, Colombia, today to meet with regional leaders and Venezuela’s self-proclaimed president, opposition leader Juan Guaidó 🐵.

The meeting follows a dramatic weekend that saw the Venezuelan military blocking the delivery of so-called humanitarian aid from entering the country at the Colombian and Brazilian borders. At least four people died, and hundreds were injured, after clashes broke out between forces loyal to Maduro and supporters of the opposition.

The United Nations, the Red Cross and other relief organizations have refused to work with the U.S. on delivering aid to Venezuela, which they say is politically motivated. Venezuela has allowed aid to be flown in from Russia and from some international organizations, but it has refused to allow in aid from the United States, describing it as a Trojan horse 🐲 for an eventual U.S. invasion. On Sunday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo 😈 said Maduro’s days in office are numbered. We speak with Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza, who has recently held secret talks with Trump’s 🦀 special envoy Elliott Abrams 😈.

Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs weekdays on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: https://democracynow.org

Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: https://democracynow.org/donate

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Category News & Politics

(https://www.greanvillepost.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Opposecapitalism5.jpg)

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 26, 2019, 12:41:28 pm

The Coup Has Failed 👍 & Now the U.S. 🦍 Is Looking to Wage War: Venezuelan Foreign Minister Speaks Out

Heard this man in an interview with Jeremy Scahill on Intercepted. Makes a compelling case.
https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/neoliberalism-or-death-the-u-s-economic-war-against-venezuela/ (https://theintercept.com/2019/02/13/neoliberalism-or-death-the-u-s-economic-war-against-venezuela/)


True. We are being lied to BIG TIME by the CAPITALIST media on behalf of CAPITALIST TYRANNY.

I heard this quote from the host of the hit comedy news show “Redacted Tonight”, Lee Camp (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac), in the second half of a video I just posted from Democracy at Work. Using satire, he basically says it ALL.

Quote
"How many CIA backed coups do you need to accept that Socialism has failed?"
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Full video 👍👍👍:

https://youtu.be/Vn3IdvmS3go
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 26, 2019, 08:15:42 pm
Originally published on the Doomstead Diner on February 26, 2019

Surly1 is an administrator and contributing author to Doomstead Diner. He is the author of numerous rants, screeds and spittle-flecked invective here and elsewhere. He lives a quiet domestic existence in Southeastern Virginia with his wife Contrary. Descended from a long line of people to whom one could never tell anything, all opinions are his and his alone, because he paid full retail for everything he has managed to learn.

Last week was really a week for doom-related news! (http://www.doomsteaddiner.net/forum/index.php/topic,12186.msg170493.html#msg170493)

Excellent summary of our not good state of affairs. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185039-1655102.gif&hash=1a13ffad2c8451cba6f45b04a1249447d50c3e73)

Another Masterpiece!  ;D

I still disagree with XRM's assessment that migration from SA is Climate-Driven.  It is primarily IMHO Population Overshoot, Economics & Politics driving it.

RE


Thank you. In re the causes, I tend to agree with you and Eddie. When Eddie made that observation earlier, I thought he was right, but I've been busy and didn't 't comment. 

The proximate age cause of the emigration, IMO, is Uncle Fuc king Cracker's foreign policy, which has been one of in terminable meddling such that life is intolerable in Central America. People are fleeing from gangs, which flourish in a state of lawlessness and the collapse of order. Families presenting themselves seeking asylum (lawfully, BTW) at the border from countries like Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala leave behind a myriad of stories, most connected to their homelands’ plague of armed violence.

Back in the day, Central Americans migrated for economic reasons. Since the end of internal armed conflicts in El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua (fomented by Uncle Sugar), thousands of Central Americans travelled to the U.S. to escape economic misery, to earn a buck and send some home. Nowadays there are fewer male migrants in their 20s-30s saddling up, and many more families, newborns, children, and pregnant women escaping life-or-death situations as much as poverty. There's your fuc king "caravan."

Who foments violence in these countries? Then same bully who has fomented violence and picked sides in the America's ever since James Monroe sh it loose a Doctrine. The Mexican War was unleashed by Polk in large measure to fuel the insatiable westward expansion of the US, and to appease American citizens in the south wished to gain more "slave states" in order to increase their political power. American arms prevailed, the Mexican cession gave us California, Nevada and Utah, and parts of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Wyoming. Spoils of war, etc.A d Uncle Sam learned an important lesson.

The FSoA doesn''t seem to be able to keep its fingers out of the panties of these countries. U.S. meddling leads to lawlessness and extreme insecurity leading to the expansion of gangs like MS-13 and others. Working g class people in these countries have to spend hard-earned money on private transport or after-school programs to avoid their kids coming into contact with criminal groups. Not as simple as sending yourmkids to school on the cheese wagon and not worrying about their safety for six hours.

In El Salvador, where one article I read had it that there are around 65,000 thousand active gang members, with a social support base of half a million people. Boys from 12 years up are prime targets for recruitment. Girls can also be targeted at an early age, either to be sexually abused or to become gang members. Little wonder these people want to get out. These gangs flourish in the absence of an effective government. Wouldn't you?

I can make a far stronger argument that climate change is a larger factor for emigration from the Middle East, especially Syria, tha. it is in Central America.

Yet for all this, I did like Xraymike''s piece.

Well said.

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Noam Chomsky - History of US Rule 🦍😈👹🍌🏴‍☠️ in Latin America

(https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Imperialism-supporters.jpg)

https://youtu.be/NKwJI9axblQ

207,946 views

PHubb

Published on Dec 19, 2009

History of US Rule in Latin America; Elections and Resistance to the Coup in Honduras - Professor Noam Chomsky PhD.

Filmed by Paul Hubbard at Massachusetts Institute of Technology on 12-15-09

www.socialistworker.org

By the way, it is a little known, but accurate, historical fact that aging Thomas Jefferson 👹 was KEY in helping Monroe craft that "doctrine".
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 26, 2019, 11:47:50 pm
(https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Imperialism-supporters.jpg)

Empire Files: An Ocean of Lies on Venezuela

https://youtu.be/ii5MlQgGXyk

Partner Content Provided By: The Empire Files

February 25, 2019

On the eve of another US war for oil, Abby Martin debunks the most repeated myths about Venezuela and uncovers how US sanctions are crimes against humanity with UN Investigator and Human Rights Rapporteur Alfred De Zayas.

https://therealnews.com/third_party_content/empire-files-an-ocean-of-lies-on-venezuela
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 01, 2019, 12:31:23 pm
Jonathan Roth - Civil War Coming to America? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132422-1694957.gif&hash=0bc3d0238a5d0f215f6edc6c0bd62395e93be065)
204,294 views

https://youtu.be/ebAQg6YG1nw

Capitalism & Morality

Published on Nov 18, 2018

Jonathan Roth has nearly two decades of broadcasting experience as a producer and executive working for outlets ranging from CTV and OMNI Television to Mauldin Economics and Geopolitical Futures.  He has produced and/or hosted long-format conversations with individuals such as Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, former Mexican President Vicente Fox, Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich and former Mossad director Efraim Halevy.  Roth is also a documentary director, most recently directing “China On Top: How China Is Using America’s Playbook To Take Over The World” featuring former U.S. Under-Secretary of Defense Michael Pillsbury and Nomi Prins, a former Managing Director of Goldman Sachs.

This speech was given at the Capitalism & Morality seminar in Vancouver, Canada, on Saturday, 21 July 2018. http://jayantbhandari.com/capitalism-...

Jonathan Roth - Civil War Coming to America?

The next Capitalism & Morality Seminar will take place on Saturday, 3 August 2019 in Vancouver, Canada.

For more information on the seminar and links to past videos: http://jayantbhandari.com/capitalism-...

Or “like” our Facebook page:  https://www.facebook.com/CapitalismMo...

Category News & Politics
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 03, 2019, 07:53:20 pm
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Venezuela and American Manifest Destiny🦍 – Gerald Horne 👍

A core concept of “Americanism” is the belief that the United States has a God given right to control all of the Americas in the name of democracy and freedom–but in reality, for plunder and commercial interest – historian Gerald Horne joins Paul Jay

https://youtu.be/fCk-v_MeJGE

March 1, 2019

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay.

The supposedly right of the United States to interfere in the affairs of Venezuela has deep roots in American economic history and culture. This painting, American Progress from 1872 by John Gast, is a representation of the modernization of the new west. Columbia, the woman in the white robes, is a personification of the United States and is shown leading civilization westward with the American settlers. She’s shown bringing light from the east into the west, stringing telegraph wire, holding a school textbook that will instill knowledge, and highlights different stages of economic activity and evolving forms of transportation. As she moves westward, Indigenous people and a herd of buffalo are seen fleeing her and the settlers.

With the ushering in of these developments, the Indigenous people living in the west and their way of life is cast out. The Monroe Doctrine of the 1820s, which was originally meant to keep European colonizers and competitors out of South America, later became a rationale for asserted U.S. power and interest throughout the Americas. This deep-seated belief, the right of the United States to bring democracy and freedom, just as Colombia did in the west, without regard for international law, and in real terms, assert American commercial interest in South America without regard for international law, is a core concept of American exceptionalism. And just before I introduce the guest, let me give some credit to Wikipedia for this, and I think I donate to Wikipedia because it’s often very useful.

Now joining us to discuss the historical context of the Venezuela U.S. attempted coup is Gerald Horne. Gerald holds the John J. and Rebecca Moores Chair of History and African American Studies at the University of Houston. His many books include Storming the Heavens and The Apocalypse of Settler Colonialism. Thanks for joining us, Gerald.

GERALD HORNE: Thank you for inviting me.

PAUL JAY: So put the Venezuela attempted coup, intervention, into a historical context. I mean, whole sections of the corporate media, certainly the corporate leadership of the Democratic Party, the foreign policy establishment, it just goes without saying somehow the United States has a right to do what it’s doing. They can dress it up in the fight for democracy, but with the exception of a small number of progressive congresspeople who have put a resolution, H.R. 1004, calling for non-intervention in Venezuela, the whole foreign policy establishment just seems to accept that the Americans have a right to do this. So give us some of the history of this.

GERALD HORNE: Well, first of all, the United States prides itself on its alleged anti-colonial origins, born in an uprising against the British Empire in 1776. But if you look a bit more closely, the conclusion you will arrive at is that the newly formed United States of America in the late 18th century began the overthrow itself of Native American polities stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific. The Monroe Doctrine that you just referenced also should be viewed in that context. That is to say that keeping European nations out of the Americas was seen to be in the naked self-interest of the United States of America. For example, when England and the United States came to blows, came to war, during the War of 1812, London basically helped to sponsor Native American uprisings and uprising amongst enslaved Africans. And that helps to give rise to this impulse to keep London out of the Western Hemisphere.

Likewise, when the United States says that it does not want European nations in this hemisphere, it was also responding to the fact that at the time of the Monroe Doctrine circa 1823, you also saw an effort by Russia creeping down what is now the West Coast of the United States of America and Canada. Recall that one of the major arteries in Northern California as we speak is called the Russian River. It was seen as important to keep Russia out of the Western Hemisphere as well. And likewise, note that patriots like Jose Marti of Cuba oftentimes called for a united Latin America. It was felt on the part of the United States of America that Latin America should be balkanized, that it should not be part of any empire, not necessarily because this was an anti-colonial impulse, but because a balkanized Latin America would make the individual nations much more susceptible to U.S. encroachment, which is precisely what happened to Mexico when a good deal of its territory was snatched by the United States during the war of 1846 to 1848, including the now most populous U.S. state that is California.

So I think that this conflict with Venezuela needs to be seen in this wider context of the United States seeking domination and hegemony in this hemisphere. It has been seen as crucial to the growth of the United States for the last two hundred years. And in some ways, it reflects the United States’ present approach to the European Union. Recalled that Mr. Trump has oftentimes expressed disdain for the E.U. He would like to deal with European nations one on one, and sees the fact that Europe is united as an impediment to United States’ manipulation of individual European states. A similar impulse helps to govern U.S. relationships with Latin America, leading to this attempt to overthrow the duly constituted government in Caracas, Venezuela.

PAUL JAY: One of the things that seems to be at the core of this idea of American exceptionalism and the American’s right to violate what would be norms of international law in South America because it’s “our backyard,” if you look at that painting again, while she’s not carrying a Christian cross, part of this idea was that this manifest destiny was a God-given right to the United States, to colonize the West, to cast out, as I said, the Native peoples who were not Christian. This kind of overt use of what was clearly a colonizer’s slogan everywhere, where the Europeans colonized to bring Christianity to the Pagan unbelievers, whether it’s Africa or Latin America or Asia, it seems that that idea, number one, still has some currency about the God-given right, especially given how much of Trump’s support is within evangelical and Christian sections of the population.

And number two, the code word now, or similar use of words, instead of God and Christianity, it’s now democracy and freedom to essentially justify the same kind of grabbing of land and resources and such.

GERALD HORNE: Well, I would make a friendly amendment. I would say that more than Christianity, we’re talking about the Protestant sect within Christianity. That is to say, if you look historically at the antipathy that has been expressed by Washington towards other nations in the hemisphere, you cannot separate that from the religious wars between London and Madrid that left London as the victor. And with the United States of America as a successor state to that Protestant impulse, and given the fact that much of South America is dominated by Catholicism, and given the fact that anti-Catholicism has been a core component of U.S. history going back to the 1820s at the time of the Monroe Doctrine, when convents were being burned to the ground and when Catholics were being persecuted.

Once again, this was not only an expression of religious bigotry, it was also an attempt to loot predominantly Catholic countries the way that Mexico was looted during the War of 1846 to 1848 and the way that Washington intends to loot, plunder, and pillage Venezuela, as national security adviser John Bolton made clear during a now infamous interview with Fox Business just a few weeks ago, when he suggested that the interests of the United States in Venezuela is taking its oil. That is to say that we have to take with more than a grain of salt, perhaps a shaker of salt, the evangelical Christianity that is said to undergird U.S. foreign Policy, which in many ways is just a cover and a veneer for a naked lust for profit.

PAUL JAY: There also is a lot of growth in Latin America of the evangelical church and variants of, to a large extent financed by the United States. In fact, I think evangelicalism is the fastest growing religion now in Latin America.

GERALD HORNE: Well, that is true. I mean, keep in mind that with the rise of liberation theology in Latin America a few decades ago and the option for the poor that at one time the present Pope was sent to represent, you have had a contrasting tendency within Christianity of so-called evangelical Christians, so-called Protestant sects who have sought to combat liberation theology on behalf of Washington, on behalf of Wall Street, on behalf of U.S. imperialism. And you see that same impulse at play, not least with the arrival in Bogota, Colombia of late, of Vice President Michael Pence, who is the political representative of that evangelical Christian tendency, a heartbeat away from the presidency.

PAUL JAY: The use of this religious imagery and grammar, and as I say, the use of the words democracy and freedom are akin to it for I guess a more secular audience, it’s part of the strategy of this modern version of the Monroe Doctrine. But I think it’s about the plunder of the resources and the reestablishment of the oligarchs in power, especially in the countries that were part of that pink tide, Brazil and Venezuela and they’re hoping for Bolivia and Nicaragua. But there’s another element to it which I think is important. When Tillerson was Secretary of State, and he was one of the more recent invokers of the Monroe Doctrine, what he was very concerned about, and I think U.S. policy is very concerned about, was the extent of which, because of these pink tide governments, China had become a major power in Latin America, I think Brazil’s number one trading partner, maybe the number one trading partner of Argentina.

And the geo strategy of trying to push back Chinese power and influence, this Venezuelan attempted coup needs to be looked at in that regard too, because both Russia, and particularly China, had loaned lots of money and were making real inroads into the Venezuelan oil sector. Let me add one other little piece to this. I mentioned this in another interview, but the largest source of heavy crude in the world, the reserves, is Venezuela, and one of the biggest refineries of heavy crude is owned by the Koch brothers in Texas. And Mike Pompeo, Secretary of State, is a Koch brothers creation. His businesses were financed by the Koch brothers, his political candidacy in Congress as a Tea Party candidate, number one donor the Koch brothers, and now the Koch brothers have him as Secretary of State. So both oil objective, but geo strategic objective of pushing China out of its very strong position in South America and Latin America.

GERALD HORNE: Well, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. First of all, as is well known, Michael Pompeo hails from the prairie region of Kansas, is exactly what you said, a creation of the Koch brothers. In fact, there’s been some talk about him running for the U.S. Senate for an open Senate seat from the state of Kansas. Second of all, with regard to China, you not only find heavy Chinese influence in Venezuela in terms of oil, but also, as you noted correctly, with regard to Brazil and Argentina. In fact, during the G20 summit that took place a few months ago in Argentina, you had the conservative president of Argentina reprimand a U.S. spokesperson who made a critique of the Chinese role in Latin America precisely because the Argentine government is very close financially to the Chinese government.

But it’s not only in South America. If you look right off the shores of southern Florida, with regard to the Bahamas, you’ll find that China has become a major and important investor. Cuba, as is well known, has very close ties, not only to China but also to Russia. And indeed, it’s no accident that in demonizing Maduro and the Caracas-based regime, there has been a related demonizing of Cuba as a major supporter, particularly in the way that it helps to influence the Venezuelan military. And even in the Caribbean, Jamaica, for example, you see that the Chinese have been very active, building a road from north to south, which has been a long term wish of the Jamaican government going back to independence in 1962. So certainly, with regard to pushing out Venezuela, or that is to say the regime in Venezuela, this has everything to do not only with Chinese and Russian influence, but also the fact that in the waters off Venezuela, Exxon Mobil has just “discovered” five billion barrels of oil to recover. There is a territorial dispute between Guyana and neighboring Venezuela.

The Guiado cabal, which is seeking to come to power in Caracas has made clear–

PAUL JAY: Just quickly let me insert, Guiado is the guy who is the President of the National Assembly who declared himself president, something that was planned months before with the Canadian-led Lima group and the U.S. CIA and State Department. So Guiado is a part of this American scheme.

GERALD HORNE: And he’s made clear that he’ll be more willing to play ball with regard to Exxon Mobil than the current patriotic regime of Maduro in Caracas. So this is the actual situation that I’m afraid to say that is not only being ignored by the corporate media, but as well, you have many Democratic Party chieftains who are somehow looking past this reality.

PAUL JAY: Talk a little bit more about corporate news coverage of the current crisis in Venezuela and the extent to which the sort of “corporate democrat liberal,” big quotations around the word liberal, foreign policy establishment seem to have no problem whatsoever syncing up being on board with people like Elliott Abrams, who was responsible for war crimes and coups and facilitating the invasion of Iraq, and on and on. Both corporate TV news and these corporate Dems aren’t saying a word about being in the same boat with Abrams and the neocons.

GERALD HORNE: It’s quite curious, is it not. I mean, here you have Democrats, who accuse the 45th president of being a fraud and a con-man, some Democrats say he’s actually a traitor and in the pay of a foreign power, but yet they’re willing to go over the cliff with him with regard to what’s happening in Venezuela. I think that you should draw a lesson with regard to the bipartisan nature of the backing and support of U.S. imperialism. And quite frankly, it’s rather disappointing that you have people like Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, who take progressive domestic positions, referring to Mr. Maduro as a quote “dictator,” giving aid and comfort to the coup mongers in Washington. And in fact, one of the few Democrats who’s spoken out vigorously against this impending coup attempt, or attempted coup in Caracas, is Congresswoman Omar of Minnesota, who has been demonized herself because of what she has raised with regard to the Israel lobby.

PAUL JAY: Just to mitigate a bit the Sanders thing, although I agree with you, I think especially he came out today or yesterday where he made a comment about the Venezuelan government should let the foreign aid through, supposed aid. Even serious progressive Venezuelan critics of Maduro, people like Edgardo Lander who are very critical of the Maduro government and critical even of the 2018 elections and so on, have denounced this foreign aid as a scheme to promote U.S. intervention. Sanders came out and called for allowing this aid through, so either he’s very badly informed or he’s caving to some of the pressure on this Venezuela issue.

On the other hand, at least he has opposed the intervention, and this bill I mentioned, H.R. 1004, has 33 members of the Progressive Caucus have signed on, calling for no U.S. military intervention. We’ll see how far that bill gets. So there are a small section of these progressives who have come out straightforwardly against intervention, which is not unimportant, but certainly the majority of the Democratic Party and the leadership are totally on board with the neocon vision for Latin America.

GERALD HORNE: Well, I think that that’s understandable in light of the fact that even the New York Times has suggested that the so-called opposition lacks a plan B. That is to say, they expected the Maduro regime to collapse like a house of cards. That has not happened, and therefore they’re flailing and floundering, looking for a way to push the regime out of power. But I would like to warn Washington and would like to warn Mr. Trump himself, personally, that it would be a grave error, and indeed a catastrophe, to contemplate a military intervention, not only because the Venezuelan military thus far is holding firm, but also recall that there are Colombian militants inside Venezuela who would like nothing more than to give Uncle Sam a bloody nose if Washington is so bold and outrageous as to contemplate a military intervention. Not to mention the fact that the most battle-hardened troops in the hemisphere, those are precisely Cuban troops and Cuban military advisors who work hand in glove with the Caracas-based regime. And so, I think that to a degree, this Democratic Party dovishness with regard to military intervention is understandable and certainly supportable.

PAUL JAY: Let me just add one thing. I’m going to show you some pictures here. This massive rally, demonstration, which is far as the eye can see, took place just a couple of days ago on Saturday. This is a pro-Chavista demo, protest, opposing any U.S. intervention, opposing Guiado. Our colleague that’s down there, Sharmini Peries is down there, and she says it’s as big as she’s ever seen. She was guessing at perhaps a million and a half people because it looked like as big as at the height of the Chavez years. There was also a large anti-government protest. I don’t know the numbers. It may even have been as big, but corporate media completely ignored the million and a half people or so that came out to oppose American intervention.

And you know, there’s a lot of people in that protest that I would guess have a lot of critique of the Maduro government, but their demand is that this is up to the Venezuelan people to sort this out, and the Americans should have nothing to do with it. And of course, they’re completely behind Guiado and were completely behind the coup in 2002. And it was people like this million and a half people that came out and defended Chavez in 2002 and prevented the coup from succeeding and brought Chavez back, literally, from a firing squad. And if the Americans ever try to use military intervention in Venezuela, they’re not just going to be facing the Venezuelan army, this million and a half people that are in the streets are likely going to be fighting them as well.

GERALD HORNE: Well, as is well known in Venezuela, there are militias that are comprised of many neighborhood groups that I think would be more than willing to go toe to toe with U.S. invaders. And likewise, I think the U.S. military invasion would split the opposition. It would split the Lima group as well. I think it would also help to split the European Union, which has thus far, generally speaking, been rather supportive, surprisingly enough, of the Trump team and their coup-mongering in Caracas, despite the fact that it’s well known that Mr. Trump has a bone to pick with the European Union as well.

PAUL JAY: All right. Thanks for joining us, Gerald.

GERALD HORNE: Thank you.

PAUL JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/venezuela-and-american-manifest-destiny-gerald-horne
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 04, 2019, 02:44:36 pm
Sorry Mr. Pence  🦍, the Venezuelan Military Aren’t Rubes

March 1, 2019

BY Jim Carey  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

(https://geopoliticsalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/1200px-Caracas_Canciller_Ricardo_Pati%C3%B1o_particip%C3%B3_en_los_actos_de_conmemoraci%C3%B3n_de_la_muerte_de_Hugo_Ch%C3%A1vez_12961157694.jpg)

Caracas (GPA) – Here’s a message to Vice-President P i s s, his freak family, Elliott Abrams and the rest of Washington: the Venezuelan military isn’t f*cking stupid.

Last weekend we saw an attempted coup in Venezuela by the US along with local lunatic/self-proclaimed “President” Juan Guaidó. This time, rather than just burning people alive in Caracas, the opposition started their stunt at the Colombian border.

The intent of this stunt was to highlight how the actual Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro refuses to let in “aid” from the United States. This is the same type of “aid” from the earlier stunt by the Trump regime that even the Red Cross and UN have called bullshit.

The plan this weekend was to give Maduro and ultimatum: either let in the aid, or the US will do something; although it’s still not clear what with even the bloated tumor Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil has said he’s not interested in any military operations launched from his country.

We all know that this coup attempt by the US and Guaidó failed because we all saw the anti-Maduro thugs on the Colombia-Venezuela border throw a tantrum when they realized their error. Once these CIA stooges realized the trucks of aid weren’t crossing the border they just decided to burn them and blame it on Maduro (which has also failed).

Related: Venezuela Seizes US Weapons Destined for Coup Plotters (https://geopoliticsalert.com/venezuela-us-weapons-coup-plotters)

But why did it fail?

In the weeks leading up to the latest coup, multiple US officials spoke publicly (and privately) to members of the Venezuelan military urging them to turn on the Bolivarian Revolution. For the sake of simplifying this argument, let’s focus in particular on the promises made by the Vice President of the US, Mike Pence.

In his pre-coup address to the Venezuelan people, Pence practically begged the military to help the US overthrow – yet another – elected Latin American government. Pence and others such as Mike Pompeo even went so far as to promise any soldiers who defected a chance to ‘live in peace’ after Washington destroys their country if they would just let all the arms disguised as aid enter.

So why didn’t the soldiers do it?

Because, as I’ve already said, they’re not f*cking stupid. The Bolivarian Revolution was built from the ground up when the people of Venezuela (and Latin America as a whole), tired of the neoliberalism enforced by Washington since the 1970s and 80s rose up. In Venezuela, this came exactly 30 years ago with the riots know and the Caracazo.

Prior to the Caracazo, as many libertarian dumbasses will tell you, Venezuela was, in fact, one of the richest countries on the continent but what the free marketeers 😈 leave out is that they had massive amounts of poverty and an immoral wealth gap between the richest and poorest citizens. This poverty, the result of neoliberal privatization schemes, set off a chain of events that later helped spawn Venezuela’s communes and a young military leader who attempted to overthrow the crooked puppet state, Hugo Chavez.

Related: Venezuela Coverage Takes Us Back to Golden Age of Lying About Latin America (https://geopoliticsalert.com/venezuela-us-latin-america)

The problem for Pence, Pompeo, Trump, Bolton, Abrams and the lot is that this military leader brought the military up with him as a liberatory force. On top of this, not only did Chávez secure the military’s loyalty because he was a military man himself, but also because, they too, had had enough domination from Wall Street.

This military, which is the same one helping Maduro protect Venezuela remembers this but they also remember other parts of history.

Another big reason the military likely won’t turn is that they know people like Pence are lying when they say anyone who supports Maduro, socialism, or even some forms of liberal democracy will never be allowed to live in peace if the US has their way.

Again, the reason they know this to be true is that they know revolutionary history. The Bolivarian military remembers what happened to other socialist movements around Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, and Asia once a US-backed anti-communist was in power. A lot of this history they know is still applicable since much of it was also perpetrated by people like Bolton and Abrams in their previous positions.

Related: Op-Ed: How the Bolivarian Revolution is Saving the World (https://geopoliticsalert.com/op-ed-how-the-bolivarian-revolution-is-saving-the-world)

The Venezuelan military remembers things like Salvador Allende being fairly elected and then overthrown, or the Contras mass murdering civilians. They know that this type of behavior doesn’t end when the US wins. They know Pinochet threw labor leaders, socialists, and anyone who opposed his trash neoliberalism from helicopters after taking power. They know the Contras and other death squads were bayoneting toddlers to prove a point to scared farmers, often while not even actually engaging whatever force they were ostensibly fighting even a single time.

The Bolivarian Revolution and the “Pink Tide” that swept Latin America in the early 2000s were a response to all of this. The Venezuelan military knows there is no peace as long as there is ANY resistance to US financial tyranny. The US, all their intelligence agencies and their various stooges around the continent may have won some fights in countries like Brazil but this won’t be as easy on Venezuela. The Venezuelan military is part of the Bolivarian revolution, they will not be separated, and like the many of the average Venezuelans opposing US intervention, they know what comes next (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040718162656-14241872.gif&hash=6c39a3206e2b2a3d652adee626b5eee8ab5b15bf) if Washington 🦍 gets their way.

https://geopoliticsalert.com/venezuelan-military-coup
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 04, 2019, 06:10:09 pm
Sanders on Venezuela – Does His Critique of US Policy Go Far Enough?  ???

https://youtu.be/O0AAHJbeB4g

March 4, 2019

At the CNN town hall, Sanders opposed U.S. intervention in Venezuela, refused to call Maduro a dictator, or recognize Guaido, but he didn’t call for an end to sanctions – with Jacqueline Luqman, Eugene Puryear, Norman Solomon and host Paul Jay

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay.

We’re continuing our discussion from Bernie Sanders’ CNN town hall. Now joining me again to break down some of the issues raised during that town hall, first of all, Jacqueline Luqman. She’s the editor-in-chief of Luqman Nation. Norman Solomon is the co-founder and national coordinator of RootsAction.org, and national coordinator of the Bernie Delegates Network. And Eugene Puryear is a journalist and author. He’s the co-founder of Stop Police Terror Project in D.C. Thank you for joining us.

So before we get get started, I’m going to play–it’s a little lengthy clip, about three minutes. But I think it’s worth it. We’re going to talk about Bernie Sanders’ attitude towards Venezuelan policy. And so here’s the clip.

SPEAKER: Good evening. In light of the recent events in Venezuela, you came out against U.S. intervention–a contentious stance, as many in Venezuela are currently suffering at the hands of Maduro through starvation and violence, and it is clear that he will not let humanitarian aid in. Under these circumstances and moving forward, do you have a clear position on U.S. intervention overseas, both economically and militarily, for nations that are under the regimes of these oppressive dictators?

BERNIE SANDERS: Thank you. Good question. There are a lot of awful things happening in the world. And what’s going on in Venezuela is terrible. Their economy is a disaster. People are living in hunger and in fear. I strongly believe there has to be an international humanitarian effort to improve lives for the people. I think the evidence is pretty clear that the last election in Venezuela was not a free and fair election, and under international supervision I want to see a free and fair election.

But to answer your question, let me say this. I am old enough to remember the war in Vietnam. And I was as active as I could trying to keep the United States from going to war in Iraq. I was in the Congress at that point. And I am very fearful of the United States continuing to do what it has done in the past. As you know, or may know, the United States overthrew a democratically-elected government in Chile, and in Brazil, and in Guatemala, and in other countries around the world. So as someone who fervently believes in human rights and democracy, we have got to do everything that we can. But I think sometimes you have unintended consequences when a powerful nation goes in and tells people who their government will be.

So my view is that whether it is Saudi Arabia, which is a despotic regime, or whether it is Venezuela, I think we have got to do everything that we can to create a democratic climate. But I do not believe in U.S. military intervention in those countries. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

WOLF BLITZER 😈: Why have you–Senator, why have you stopped short of calling Maduro of Venezuela a dictator?

BERNIE SANDERS: I think it’s it’s fair to say that the last election was undemocratic. But there are still Democratic operations taking place in their country. The point is what I am calling for right now is internationally supervised free elections. And I do find it interesting that Trump is very concerned about what goes on in Venezuela. But what about the last election that took place in Saudi Arabia? Oh, there wasn’t any election in Saudi Arabia. Oh, women are treated as third-class citizens. So I find it interesting that Trump is kind of selective as to where he is concerned about democracy. My record is to be concerned about democracy all over the world. So we’ve got to do everything we can. But at the end of the day, it’s going to be the people of Venezuela who determine the future of their country, not the United States of America. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818180835-1624479.gif&hash=92c92575625c10582f9c1c6f9db969ad24bf62a8)

PAUL JAY: Hi. OK. So, Jacqueline, what’s your response to Bernie Sanders?

JACQUELINE LUQMAN: Well, Sanders ended on the right note. He said it’s going to be up to the responsibility of the people of Venezuela to determine the course of their country. Well, that’s what they did when they voted–overwhelmingly, 6 million people voted for the current administration under Maduro; 6 million Venezuelans voted to continue the Bolivarian revolution. And no one, not one Venezuelan, voted for the self-appointed opposition president Juan Guaido.

So I’m troubled by Sanders continuing to to repeat the American imperialist narrative that Maduro is not democratically elected, that there were not democratic elections, free and fair elections, in Venezuela. Where is the proof of that? That Maduro needs to allow in humanitarian aid–he has. China, Cuba, other countries, Russia, have actually provided more humanitarian aid–actual aid, and not aid that is used as cover, as a political prop, provided more aid to Venezuela than the United States. So it’s like he ended on the right note, but he still felt like he needed to start with that, with the American imperialist talking points. And that’s really troubling.

PAUL JAY: OK. Norman?

NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, If you look at what he said about the economy of Venezuela, I think the omission that would have been much better for him to provide would be the effect of U.S. sanctions, which have been damaging and crippling, antihumanitarian, for many years. I think it’s notable as a backdrop that almost two years ago, Bernie Sanders voted against sanctions on North Korea, Iran, and Russia, you know, a package. And it was a courageous vote, because he pointed out that these sanctions in those cases reduced the chance of bringing about peaceful relations, and increased the chance of military conflict.

I think it’s notable in the clip that we just heard that Bernie condemned not only military intervention, but he cited three examples of non-military, subversive, CIA-type undermining of democratically-elected governments. He cited Brazil. He cited Guatemala and Chile. And this is the kind of historical context and understanding that conveyed a very clear point. And we’re not going to get that, we haven’t gotten that, from other candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination.

I don’t think what we need most of all from government leaders in the United States, particularly in the Congress at this point, I don’t think what we need is to say that Maduro is flawless. And frankly, I don’t think he is. I think what we need from those leaders is to say we must not have the United States intervene militarily, or any other way. If you look at the actual phrasing of what Bernie has been saying, he says that he supports humanitarian aid going into Venezuela. He doesn’t say U.S. humanitarian aid. And as Jacqueline pointed out, there has been humanitarian aid flowing in from various other countries.

So you know, frankly, I think that when you take as a whole what Bernie is saying, it is conveying to the mass media against ferocious propaganda that we need nonintervention in Venezuela. And one more point. Bernie has been savagely trashed by many corporate Democrats in the last week for refusing to call Maduro a dictator, for refusing to go along with what I think really are the main mass media-type talking points in this country.

PAUL JAY: Eugene?

EUGENE PURYEAR: Well, I think that certainly I agree that it is good that Senator Sanders ultimately is against military intervention. I also would have liked to see him speak more about the issue of sanctions. And also, quite frankly, the role the Federal Reserve in backing up these speculative dollar websites, like Dollar Today and AirTM that are having a devastating role on the exchange rate and people’s purchasing power.

But be that as it may, I think the other factor that is important to me, though, is it’s it’s crucial, I think, for someone in the position of Senator Sanders, and also vis a vis educating the populace in I think what is a ferocious media war, to also tell the facts, and start from the point of view of the facts. And sometimes it feels like to me, and really all the time when Bernie’s speaking about Venezuela, he’s really trying to get votes in Florida. I mean, it is true that he said ‘humanitarian aid,’ but didn’t specify a country. But he didn’t also debunk fact that there is humanitarian aid coming in. And then let’s just get the facts correct, here. Since 2016, Venezuela has been working with United Nations and then subsequently the Pan American Health Organization to bring in humanitarian aid, along with other countries that are bringing it. So it’s not as if this is even a new thing. In fact, it’s an older thing. You look at the Global Hunger Index, Venezuela’s 49. They’re actually above Malaysia. You look at the Human Development Index, they’re above Colombia.

So I think it’s incumbent also to debunk a lot of this propaganda, because I think it really goes to the point not just of being opposed to intervention, being opposed to sanctions, but also recognizing that influences on foreign policy in the United States from these malign factors that want to overthrow the government of Venezuela and loot the country. And I’ll also just add, this issue of the elections–I mean, the only real credible claim, or semi-credible claim–I don’t really consider it credible–about the elections at the time of the elections is from the company that made voting machines, who claimed they had evidence, which they never showed. The day after they announced that they closed down their office and they completely disappeared. All the information that is up for that election in 2018, it’s online, I’ve never seen a statistical analysis presented by any force to say that this is somehow fraudulent. But in the Democratic Republic of Congo, we had that. So somehow in the DRC we have a Catholic Church-funded effort that can say exactly how it was. In Venezuela we just have claims.

And that’s my issue with the Bernie Sanders approach here. It’s not necessarily sort of the core basis of opposition to intervention. But the way he phrases it, I think, doesn’t do a good service to those who do look to someone like Bernie Sanders to tell them what’s really going on. But in general, yes, I think it is better than any of the other candidates by obviously being against intervention and against regime change.

PAUL JAY: Norman?

NORMAN SOLOMON: Well, it’s a responsibility of progressive groups, and many of them have stepped up, to fill those gaps. And I think what Bernie has done is to lay out a framework that’s politically powerful in terms of opposing what needs to be most of all opposed. And we can argue about exactly how democratic or undemocratic the last election was in Venezuela. I think there were undemocratic elements. I think there were undemocratic elements in the United States in the election in 2016. These are critiques that need to be made that in no way justify any intervention by the U.S. in any manner, shape, or form.

PAUL JAY: I mean, I’ve got to say, from what I know of the 2018 elections, they were not free and fair as previous elections during the governments of Hugo Chavez. And I was actually on an observer mission during one of the votes under Chavez. But when one says they weren’t free and fair in 2018, I think as much or even more responsibility has to be put at the feet of the opposition. Because free and fair is not just about what the government did. And even if there were, I think, maybe some irregularities, or things in terms of parties not being recognized, using certain technicalities to keep some of the opposition parties from running, I think there are some legitimate issues there, but I also think the underlying strategy of the opposition was not to participate to discredit the elections, in order to create the situation for what’s going on now.

So you know, does one in the end wind up in a conclusion, well, now one way or the other there needs to be free and fair elections? And certainly I would think that’s the case, and I think much of the Venezuelan left that isn’t directly associated with the government thinks so. But that being said, that doesn’t happen because the Americans come in and recognize Guaido, and then they’re going to run the elections? I mean, this is going to–who knows? You know, there’s lots of talk about democracy in Iraq. Saddam falls, the Americans take over. And in fact, the Iraqis wanted to use that moment to have legitimate elections. They were starting to organize, elect democratic committees all over the country to have elections. And in fact, you know, not because of the plan of the Americans. The Iraqis really were going to create a democratic election. But of course, the Americans stopped it, because they couldn’t control the outcome of it. So–and this is one problem I have with Bernie’s–the way he positions this. And I guess it’s tactical. I don’t know. But I don’t like when he says ‘unintended consequences’ of these interventions. No, these were intended consequences. It was intended to create-

NORMAN SOLOMON: I totally agree with that point. I mean, these are not–what happened in Brazil, and that was under Lyndon Johnson, 1964, ushering in fascism, when Goulart was brought down by the CIA’s assistance. That was not intended, as you say. Neither was Chile. Neither was undermining–helping overthrow the Arbenz government in Guatemala in 1954. I think calling it unintended is just historically wrong. At the same time, that Bernie will cite those examples as malign and terrible instances of U.S. foreign policy is instructive. And it’s up to progressives both to push Bernie to do a better job, even, publicly, and also to educate the public and agitate for change.

PAUL JAY: Go ahead, Jacqueline.

JACQUELINE LUQMAN: Yeah, I think I disagree with that a little bit. Because it’s as much as progressives have done a pretty good job, I think, of becoming more aware of certain issues that Sanders raised in 2016 that maybe other politicians wouldn’t have raised, and people have become more politically aware about those issues since then, I don’t think it’s our job as progressives, as leftists, to educate the general population, because we’re not going to be able to do that. We don’t have the bully pulpit. And even he has a bully pulpit right now–that’s Senator Sanders does–because he’s on a town hall on CNN, as much as a hostile environment as that is, as the corporate media. We might have social media and The Real News Network and YouTube and our own platforms, but that’s nothing compared to CNN.

So I think Sanders as a candidate, and a very, very popular progressive candidate for the Democratic nomination for president of the United States, has more of a responsibility to get that narrative–not the whole history, because he doesn’t have that much time–but at least to get the narrative right about connecting that history, and being very clear that, as you said, Paul, these are not unintended consequences. This was all a manufactured and intended outcome that the United States and other entities in the West were directly responsible for.

NORMAN SOLOMON: I’m going to say it’s not an either-or there. Of course, Bernie should do a better job, and he should be pushed and critiqued to do so. But progressives must never throw in the towel to reach as many people in this country as possible with public education and agitation and protest. Ten years ago, Medicare for All was not on the mainstream media map. It didn’t get there because people in elite positions or elected people decided to educate the public. It’s because of grassroots organizing, and people doing that job day in and day out for years at a time.

Let me give you a quick example, in terms of Bernie Sanders. Three and a half years ago, Bernie was in his first presidential campaign, saying that Saudi Arabia should “get its hands dirty” in fighting “terrorism in the Middle East.” And at RootsAction.org and some other groups as well, we publicly took Bernie to task. We pointed out that Saudi Arabia, with U.S. help, was already massacring people in Yemen. So what has happened in a process of people pushing and challenging and educating the public, as well as critiquing Bernie about Saudi Arabia and Yemen, it’s at a point where, with leadership from Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders in Congress, the Congress has voted to cut off, to demand that the U.S. cut off its aid to the murderous Saudi war in Yemen. So this is a flux situation. It’s not static. And we all have our responsibilities as progressives.

PAUL JAY: Eugene?

EUGENE PURYEAR: Well, I think that’s true. I just think that maybe the Medicare for All example is instructive, because I think it was Bernie, among other people, that exactly what he was able to do is not just articulate what individuals wanted, but I think also articulate why the opposition to something like Medicare for All was, you know, essentially completely bogus. And I think this is a similar piece.

I completely agree with Norman that we have to do everything we can to reach everyone. But I think people have been pushing Bernie. And I think if you look, in fact, quite frankly, at some of those who are around him and their social media accounts, you can see that some of that critique in real time is, to some degree, being either engaged with, and also–you know, maybe maybe not directly acknowledged, but at least people try to have evolved positions or use social media to give caveats to things that they’d like.

So I think the reality is the information is there. It’s there for Bernie Sanders, I think, to have. I think he’s actually aware that the way he’s framing it is the way he’s framing it, and I think it is in the context of the elections. I think it is practical, from that perspective. And I think that, quite frankly, what we need from our candidates is more mythbusting of the things that are out there, because of that bully pulpit element. But absolutely, I think it’s up to those of us who care about these issues to push every single candidate until we hear what we want to hear. And if not, I guess support other candidates who will say what we do want to hear.

PAUL JAY: Yeah I’d like to agree with this, too. Like, it’s three years ago Bernie Sanders called Hugo Chavez a dictator. Now, three years later, he won’t use that word with Maduro. And one assumes he wouldn’t anymore with Chavez. There’s been a progression in his foreign policy thinking, it seems, certainly the way he articulates it. Three, four years ago, he was very, what’s the word, uncommitted, in terms of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. He would often vote for measures that one would say supported right-wing policies in Israel, and didn’t come out very strongly. He’s very changed on that. And certainly appointing Cornell West to the Democratic Party Platform Committee to fight for the language of Palestinian rights within the Democratic Party platform, I think that was quite a transformation of his–at least, the expression of his politics. I mean, I say it that way because I’m never sure what Bernie really believes, and where he’s tactically taking certain positions.

And I give him the benefit of the doubt, partly because I see this progression. Partly because I am not guarding the gates of heaven and don’t decide, have to decide, about his moral character, and whether he gets into heaven or not. What we–in terms of the practical politics of America, no one else has that kind of platform saying the kinds of things he’s saying. And so, yeah. Do we–and that’s why we’re doing this segment–do we need to critique where we think he’s still limited? Where, you know, to talk about hunger and fear in Venezuela. Well, there is hunger. But not at the scale that’s being portrayed; as far as we can tell, anyway. We just had–two of our journalists were down there, and just just got back in the last couple of weeks. And no doubt there is some scarcity, especially in the poorer neighborhoods in Venezuela. But in Caracas, life is proceeding fairly normally. It’s not this crazy dystopian vision that’s being created in Western media. So he’s kind of feeding into that. On the other hand, he hasn’t been there. And a lot of what he knows, he’s relying on the same media filter that everyone else is. So anyway, what’s our job? At The Real News, our job is just to try to get at as much of the truth of this as we can. So a really quick final word on this, and we’re going to do another segment. Norman, a final word from you?

NORMAN SOLOMON: I would point to an article that the journalist Zaid Jilani did for Truthout a couple of weeks ago, where he really maps out a lot of the terrain that you just covered, Paul, in terms of the progression of Bernie’s foreign policy positions over the last four years. And there’s no doubt, whether it’s in terms of Palestine, whether it’s in terms of U.S. militarism overall and intervention, those positions have become better and better. We want them to become even better than they are now. But the role that he has taken in educating the public, much better than he did before. And to deepen his own positions so that he is moving the discourse in a much more progressive, antimilitarist direction, I think it’s very important. He’s now talking routinely against what he calls, refers to, as the military industrial complex. And we need that sort of discussion for the future.

PAUL JAY: Eugene?

EUGENE PURYEAR: Yeah, I think we need to continue to build the antiwar, antimilitarist, anti-imperialist movement in this country. I think, you know, as we’ve seen on number of issues, that’s what’s going to pull Bernie, every politician, in the broader society, I think, more in that direction. So those of us who really care about it, I do think, obviously, you know, compared to many other people in Congress, certainly, Bernie Sanders is on the better end of things. But at the end of the day Congress is sort of a no-go zone for a lot of these ideas. And I think the reality is that’s because we don’t have the type of manifestations on the streets, in the social networks, or whatever it may be, against these sort of policies. So I think if we continue to build that movement, we’re going to start to move the needle.

PAUL JAY: Jacqueline, last word.

JACQUELINE LUQMAN: Yeah, I don’t want to suggest that those of us in the progressive movement or on the left should not be responsible for educating the people around us, and being involved in building an antiwar movement, being involved in learning everything we can about these issues so that we can continue to broaden our knowledge and broaden the knowledge of people around us. What I am saying is that we cannot, I don’t think, hedge our criticism of candidates–not just Sanders, but all of them–on issues that are critical to the survival of people on this planet because they’ve gotten better over time. We can acknowledge their progression in the right direction. But if we’re going to be honest and really get to the kind of policies that we need to sustain a quality of life that is decent for people around the world, especially in this country but also around the world, then we have to be honest where these politicians fall short, especially if they’re supposed to be the so-called favorites.

PAUL JAY: OK. Thank you all for joining us. Thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/sanders-on-venezuela-does-his-critique-of-us-policy-go-far-enough

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 08, 2019, 07:13:03 pm
End Venezuela Sanctions Says Rep. Ro Khanna and 15 Progressive Democrats   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

https://youtu.be/b41OIyG-tcc

March 8, 2019

16 progressive members of Congress sent a letter to the Trump administration, demanding an end to economic sanctions and to military threats against Venezuela. We speak to Rep. Ro Khanna, who led the initiative

https://therealnews.com/stories/end-venezuela-sanctions-says-rep-ro-khanna-and-15-progressive-democrats
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 12, 2019, 09:41:05 pm
(https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/xtjEXQq0QaaVyWP92-cS-ZKT1Fo7TOeiAswBLrVa6avfbmxlBGRSqxsUCz5wr1rr-8yucnRCin9ZGlhQtcaQQJ2C5QPl_GF7nb45pztUGG84HBEKKFIj1Yxm0PJx9FW52vw3l3f5ixqxzCCRSDich_PWEF2qBf1v6NxgDCsnt-St_q-1vmd6BUj6et4eK-LIGxw=s0-d-e1-ft#https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/public/users/Integrators/BeeProAgency/139576_115486/Usual-Suspects-ground-zero-650-v3.jpg)

AE911TRUTH (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac)

 March 12, 2019

Lawyers' Committee 'Names Names' in
New 9/11 Grand Jury Filing

SNIPPET:

The Petition Supplement filed today, building on the prior-filed evidence of “what” crimes were committed during this tragedy, focuses on the “who,” “why,” and “how” of these yet-to-be prosecuted crimes. The thirty-three-page document presents detailed information regarding persons who may have information material to the federal Special Grand Jury’s investigation. This new Petition Supplement was addressed to U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Geoffrey S. Berman as well as to Michael Ferrara and Ilan Graff, Chiefs, Terrorism and International Narcotics Unit.

The Lawyers’ Committee’s April 10th 52-page original Petition was accompanied by 57 exhibits and presented extensive evidence that explosives were used to destroy three WTC Towers on 9/11. That evidence included independent scientific laboratory analysis of WTC dust samples showing the presence of high-tech explosives and/or incendiaries; numerous first-hand reports by First Responders of seeing and hearing explosions at the World Trade Center on 9/11; expert analysis of seismic evidence that explosions occurred at the WTC towers on 9/11 both prior to the airplane impacts and prior to the building collapses; and expert analysis and testimony by architects, engineers, and scientists concluding that the rapid onset symmetrical near-free-fall acceleration collapse of these three WTC high rise buildings on 9/11 exhibited the key characteristics of controlled demolition. The July 30th Amended Petition included the same evidence but also addressed several additional federal crimes beyond the federal bombing crime addressed in the original Petition.

The Lawyers’ Committee concluded in the petitions that explosive and incendiary devices that had been preplaced at the WTC were detonated 💥 causing the complete collapse of the World Trade Center Twin Towers and Building 7 on 9/11, and the resulting tragic loss of life, and that “the evidence permits no other conclusion -- as a matter of science, as a matter of logic, and as a matter of law.” Both petitions and a names-redacted version of the just-filed Petition Supplement are available to the public on the Lawyers’ Committee’s webpage at www.lcfor911.org (http://www.lcfor911.org).

Full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

https://www.ae911truth.org/news/512-lawyers-name-names-of-persons-with-material-information-in-9-11-grand-jury-filing (https://www.ae911truth.org/news/512-lawyers-name-names-of-persons-with-material-information-in-9-11-grand-jury-filing)


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 13, 2019, 09:32:02 pm
Max Blumenthal (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311017193926.png&hash=135a7bcd2093b679e425bbd2086adb8ddfd2e7b5): Report From the REAL Venezuela
47,517 views

https://youtu.be/WfD-7_kXs9E

The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow

Published on Mar 7, 2019

Find out more: https://thegrayzone.com/

Subscribe to The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow for more: https://www.patreon.com/thezerohour

If you liked this clip of The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, please share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!

Some of the music bumpers featuring Lettuce, http://lettucefunk.com.

Category News & Politics
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 20, 2019, 07:25:53 pm
MAR 19, 2019 OPINION

 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818184306-16302042.png&hash=b32964f6121cd80269354273700cf61fabc97dae)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-010319144633.png&hash=290b550d0c55f2244e94fdab3349beb3452bec0f)

The American Emperor (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F809_84688966.jpeg&hash=7f3e84eea23fef901b7df618784dc2005290f591) Has No Clothes

SNIPPET:

Make no mistake, Washington isn’t done trying; it’s happy to keep throwing good money (and blood) at bad: to the tune of a cool $6 trillion, 7,000 troop deaths, and 500,000 foreign deaths—including maybe 240,000 civilians. But what’s it all been for? The world is no safer, global terror attacks have only increased, and Uncle Sam just can’t seem to achieve any of its preferred policy goals.

Think on it for a second: Russia and Iran “won” in Syria; the Taliban and Pakistan are about ready to “win” in Afghanistan; Iran is more influential than ever in Iraq; the Houthis won’t quit in Yemen; Moscow is keeping Crimea; Libya remains unstable; North Korea ain’t giving up its nukes; and China’s power continues to grow in its version of the Caribbean—the South China Sea. No amount of American cash, no volume of our soldiers’ blood, no escalation in drone strikes or the conventional bombing of brown folks, has favorably changed the calculus in any of these regional conflicts.

What does this tell us? Quite a lot, I’d argue—but not what the neoliberal/neoconservative alliance of pundits and policymakers are selling. See for these unrepentant militarists the problem is always the same: Washington didn’t use enough force, didn’t spend enough blood and treasure. So is the solution: more defense spending, more CIA operations, more saber-rattling, and more global military interventions.

No, the inconvenient truth is as simple as it is disturbing to red-blooded patriots. To wit, the United States🦍 —or any wannabe hegemon – simply doesn’t possess the capability to shape the world in its own image. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132421-16902.gif&hash=deba9f0f91ecd7d65bbdeb78786bef4a98cb1a7e) See those pesky locals— Arabs, Asians, Muslims, Slavs—don’t know what’s good for them, don’t understand that (obviously) there is a secret American zipped inside each of their very bodies, ready to burst out if given a little push!

It turns out that low-tech, cheap insurgent tactics, when combined with impassioned nationalism, can bog down the “world’s best military” indefinitely. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132421-16902.gif&hash=deba9f0f91ecd7d65bbdeb78786bef4a98cb1a7e) It seems, too, that other regional heavyweights—Russia, China, Iran, North Korea—stand ready to call America’s nuclear bluff. That they know the US all-volunteer military and consumerist economy can’t ultimately absorb the potential losses a conventional war would demand. Even scarier for the military-industrial-congressional-media establishment is the logical extension of all this accumulated failure: the questionable efficacy of military force in the 21st century.

Full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/the-american-emperor-has-no-clothes/

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 22, 2019, 06:15:49 pm
Might 🦍 Makes Right 😈: Trump 🦀 Endorses Israeli Annexation of Golan Heights

March 21, 2019

Trump tweeted that the US should recognize Israel’s annexation of Syria’s Golan Heights, which Israel has been occupying for 52 years. TRNN’s Shir Hever explores what this means for the region

https://youtu.be/22faJpVULss

https://therealnews.com/stories/might-makes-right-trump-endorses-israeli-annexation-of-golan-heights
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 23, 2019, 02:36:49 pm
(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/afBqFjmAA5ZIuC0X95qKyWE0v151NAwpSlG69FXPO8kETd7qkUyHXEbOzsyOaS-0vLjKI6RMhH6pHFjVDiLDewQDXRWo15k5JUyOwxMj5fP1j-vl_nYpeDUty02PcoervLSKcViznAXlaqeRbKJLW8bR3l4GtNSEGZ9YD5q6bN-bXIxjtjOaaQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/public/users/Integrators/BeeProAgency/139576_115486/FBI-Heimbach-letter-650.jpg)


AE911Truth
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210614221847.gif&hash=54129e3b65760aaddc6f2d7f42b34a7d839d2f27) 👍👍👍

March 23, 3019

9/11 Families, Lawyers’ Committee, AE911Truth to File Lawsuit against FBI on Monday

This coming Monday, 9/11 family members Bob McIlvaine and Barbara Krukowski-Rastelli along with the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry and Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth will file a lawsuit against the FBI over its 9/11 Review Commission Report issued in 2015.

This bold legal action will be the first time that anyone has ever attempted to force the FBI to assess and report the evidence of the World Trade Center’s explosive demolition as well as other 9/11 evidence still unaddressed to this day — all known to the FBI.

In 2014, Congress mandated the FBI to form an external commission to conduct “an assessment of any evidence now known to the FBI that was not considered by the 9/11 Commission related to any factors that contributed in any manner to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.”A year later, the FBI  😈 released the final report, which included neither an assessment of the evidence related to the WTC demolition nor an assessment of several other areas of crucial evidence.

Our end goal is to compel the FBI to reconstitute its 9/11 Review Commission in some form, assess the evidence known to the FBI but omitted from the Commission's 2015 report, and include that evidence in a new, amended report to Congress and the American people.

From now through April 1, we ask you to help us raise $30,000 for the first two phases of litigation: drafting the complaint and preparing our response to the anticipated motion to dismiss, which involve hundreds of attorney hours. We also invite everyone who is near Washington, D.C., on Monday, March 25, to attend our 1:00 PM news conference with Bob McIlvaine, Mick Harrison, Dave Meiswinkle, and Richard Gage at the Newseum, one block from the U.S. District Court!

Please visit AE911Truth.org/FBI to learn more and make your generous donation today. On behalf of the Lawyers’ Committee 🦅 and Bob and Barbara 🕊✨, we are grateful for your unyielding commitment.

https://www.ae911truth.org/fbi

Agelbert NOTE: The 911 INSIDE JOB by rogue elements in the US Government is PRECISELY what paved the way for the FASCIST Government now destroying the fabric of American society.

If this CRIME is allowed to go unpunished, there is no hope for ANY kind of Social AND Environmental Justice in this country.

What goes around, COMES AROUND!

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-071117175342.jpeg&hash=ac6ea3788a581a5a6111d7143ed677cfdf6c2c5b)

https://youtu.be/pEqWCH_4srU

https://youtu.be/CRZy8yImNWc
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 26, 2019, 09:30:01 pm
9/11 FREE FALL 3/14/19: GENE JOHNSON

Host Andy Steele is joined by engineer and Project Due Diligence volunteer Gene Johnson (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac), who discusses the presentation of the WTC evidence that he recently held in Amarillo, TX. 

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/WTC_Building_Arrangement_and_Site_Plan_%28building_7_highlighted%29.jpg/250px-WTC_Building_Arrangement_and_Site_Plan_%28building_7_highlighted%29.jpg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163123-1664600.png&hash=d609f7e4847e25e034ca7c7b11e75234ba2a0afd) Podcast: 👍

http://911freefall.com/9-11-free-fall-3-14-19-gene-johnson/
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 27, 2019, 08:12:40 pm
(https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Imperialism-supporters.jpg)
“We Are Swimming in an Ocean of Lies” on Venezuela

March 26, 2019

Former UN Special Rapporteur says Michelle Bachelet needs to change her team and visit Venezuela herself, or she is going to continue to get an “unprofessional, one-sided, politicized report” on the state of the country

https://youtu.be/HBnIFqQDCyU

https://therealnews.com/stories/we-are-swimming-in-an-ocean-of-lies-on-venezuela

Agelbert NOTE: This present EVIL being visited on Venezuela has a long and sordid CAPITALIST/FASCIST 👹 history all over Central and South America.

https://youtu.be/NKwJI9axblQ

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221014222208.png&hash=ae35994d8acc44c5bd0794f40f9d513715a7159f)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 27, 2019, 09:03:09 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Notice that nice picture below of "Saint" 😇 Mueller 😉  with 🦖 Shrub. Mueller was the CROOK that BURIED 911, just like he BURIED the Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270117175421.png&hash=cf39e823dd9156833bfa885808a876bf518bd0d6) crimes under a mountain of legalese BULLSHIT.

911 IS the KEYSTONE CRIME that gave us the Fascist Government now busy getting rid of the last vestige of American freedoms. Welcome to (https://images.dailykos.com/images/604450/story_image/NO45-1024x1024.jpg?1540657700) NAZI GERMANY, Circa 2019. 😨 😱

  (https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/LloI-oVVuixZbtl5c44WagLc0D3FXJzJGzau8zQ7M0D1rkAGqOyzrGKd3XZFqC2Lw5mdluizA99aKd1MtaRHBpj0LhSS866n_GailfNOIEdU0Jn4AS_opEJkC7UPh9w-jMkXgVl00uwacHfEjiUE6L8dIHUlGuuBI42XlaYwbrVF=s0-d-e1-ft#https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/public/users/Integrators/BeeProAgency/139576_115486/bush-mueller-650.jpg)


March 27, 2019

Courthouse News Provides Real, Unbiased Coverage of FBI Lawsuit

FBI Lawsuit Fund Drive: Just $6,000 to Go to Our First Milestone!


Yesterday, Courthouse News did something that few mainstream news outlets have done in nearly two decades reporting on 9/11: It offered real, unbiased coverage of our movement for truth and justice in the form of an article about our just-filed FBI Lawsuit titled “FBI Accused of Omitting Evidence From 9/11 Report.”

We encourage every supporter of 9/11 Truth and Justice to read this article and share it with your colleagues, friends, and family as a demonstration that our pursuit not only continues, but continues to gain ground.

  (https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/NlUveW41vl9S-yi9QkAzfHkwH-h1TpWArGKKA8VThIzcUJhjWruI-AXdL7Xk2cOeCP8c0ikuH2pAWS0cSpJr_k7RvORCt6GhdAjzEFy1OSFk6nO38HhlhdrZWOYrwuqhCcRbQ0e8iygP_Y5t0hDisLvhQPQDTP28Eoh1m_yQsZS-HZcWnOIXjwMAPVeMtk8icLhto-h04zX6hnGaYH6eZl8nLlZmLyplACgERtmYU11PuSKo83e7=s0-d-e1-ft#https://d15k2d11r6t6rl.cloudfront.net/public/users/Integrators/BeeProAgency/139576_115486/Courthouse-News-Provides-Real-Unbiased-Coverage-of-FBI-Lawsuit-650-v5.jpg)


We’re also thrilled to report that, in the four days since this effort was launched, you’ve helped us raise nearly $24,000 of the $30,000 needed to fund the first phase of the FBI Lawsuit.

If you haven’t chipped in yet and wish to support this historic litigation against the FBI for its failure to assess and report crucial 9/11 evidence, please take a moment to do so today. On behalf of the Lawyers’ Committee, Bob McIlvaine and Barbara Krukowski-Rastelli (our co-plaintiffs), we are very grateful for your unyielding commitment to this transformative cause.

You are making the difference!

Thank you for your support of AE911Truth.

Without you, we wouldn't exist.

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 28, 2019, 07:24:11 pm
Humane Capitalism or Fascism and War – Q&A with Paul Jay

March 27, 2019

A viewer asks why did Paul say that capitalism led to World War I, and another viewer asks if humane capitalism is the answer to today’s problems – Paul Jay joins Taya Graham

https://youtu.be/_Wsz2Dh8XX0

Story Transcript

TAYA GRAHAM: We’re continuing our conversation with Paul Jay about socialism, and some of the comments from our viewers. So what I’d like to do is share some of the viewer comments on socialism and on your dissection of it with your guests.

Patrick R. says, “Socialism is disgusting. It leads to laziness in business and the workforce, and has literally never worked anywhere. Are you people daft?” So that’s from Patrick R.

Bob R. says, “The answer isn’t socialism. Even the Amish are capitalists. But there is such a thing as humane capitalism. And to get there we need to get back to the New Deal and keep moving beyond that. Socialism always fails on any sort of scale, leading to despotism, collapse, or colonization from the outside.”

And the last one–and this is actually a direct question for you, Paul–[sway ocean] said, “Capitalism gave us World War II? Please explain that, Paul Jay. Shaking my head.” So maybe, Paul, you could address some of these questions and comments that our viewers have. They don’t seem to think that socialism actually will work, and they think you’re suggestion that capitalism led to World War II is an absurd one.

PAUL JAY: OK, so there are three very different questions here, so help me keep track, because I’ve got to do this one by one. I should point out that if people go to the YouTube stories that we’ve been doing on socialism, the vast overwhelming response is a discussion and debate with the assumption that, actually, socialism does make sense. And then there’s recent polling that shows that, I think, under the age of 35 the majority of the population now think socialism is better than capitalism.

TAYA GRAHAM: There is definitely a healthy good faith discussion on socialism happening amongst our viewers. Absolutely.

PAUL JAY: But that being said, it’s a big conversation, just what people have in mind when they say the word ‘socialism,’ because it means a lot of things to different people. And some of the questions raised, you just said, are are good questions. Let’s start with the first one, that under socialism people are lazy, which means productivity goes down. And there’s some truth to the previous experience of that. Some.

Now, like, you take the examples of Soviet Union. Which was a kind of socialism. There is–let me start with saying there’s no such thing as a formula of what socialism any more than there is a formula of what capitalism is. Capitalism in the United States is quite different than that of Canada. What’s going on in Finland is very different than what’s going on in the United Kingdom. I mean, some of the fundamentals are true, that private ownership is primary, and that a kind of oligarchy in ruling circles are in command. You have varying degrees of what is called democracy and voting, you know, has some effect. In other places voting takes place and is somewhat meaningless.

So country by country there are quite serious, or significant, I should say, differences in what capitalism is. And the same thing goes for, so far, the historical experience of socialism. One should also say to get to what capitalism is now took several hundred years. I mean, capitalism of the 20th century–let me jump to the third question. The competition amongst capitalist powers led to World War I and World War II. World War II is the continuation of World War I, where you have the–one of the ways capitalism develops is you have an uneven rise of big powers. So England had risen. I mean, there’s a day when Portugal and Spain were superpowers, and they diminish. There was a time when Britain ruled the seas. It diminishes.

But you have a time, you know, early in the 20th century and coming into the 20th century where you start to have the rise of German capitalism as a real power. The problem is the colonies are all gone. I mean, taken, if you will, not gone. Taken, you know, between Britain growing the United States. France. Where does Germany go to have overseas markets? To have overseas cheap labor? To have overseas easy access to raw materials? Which is something these big industrial powers necessarily want, because one of the things about modern big industrial capitalism is that it expands or it dies, and it loses. You know, these different capitalist powers, countries, are in big competition with each other. And if one gets weaker, the other one tries to jump in and scoop away the cotton market somewhere.

And you know, at the heart of it is very much about just commercial competition. You know, they always–it’s always loaded with a bunch of BS rhetoric of patriotism, and you know, sometimes it’s freedom, and whatever. But at the heart is always commercial interest.

So in World War I, Germany had nowhere to go. And you have internal impulses or forces within German economy to expand. And even while it’s happening, you have a growing arms industry that loves feeding conflict. There’s a guy named Zakharov, he was called the merchant of death, and he was selling machine–you know, the beginnings of the machine gun to the Germans, and he was selling–he’s telling the Germans the French had it; he was telling the French the Germans had it. And he got everybody to kind of get in on this arms frenzy. And you know, the forces that led to World War I, it’s a complicated set of processes. But at its core is big country, big capitalist country, competition for dominance. Germany gets defeated. But it doesn’t take away that Germany is still a mighty industrial power, and starts to rearm, even though they weren’t supposed to, and starts to rearm to a large extent with the assistance of Henry Ford and General Motors and American industry. Why? Because they’re making money out of it. And two, they really hoped that Germany would just march against the Soviet Union and not march West.

So I mean, these are–you know, certainly there’s a lot of complicated factors. But this private ownership, it necessarily leads in these big powers to this inter-power competition. And we’re seeing it again now. You know, the rivalry that’s developing between the United States and China is heading in very similar directions as during the 20th century.

So just dealing with this question about World War II, it’s not like Hitler came out of nowhere. Hitler came out of the deep depression of the 1930s. And you know, people were taking–inflation had reached a point in Germany people were taking their pay home in wheelbarrows. There’s photographs of wheelbarrows with piles of useless cash on it.

TAYA GRAHAM: Full of Deutsche Marks that were useless.

PAUL JAY: Yeah. So I mean, the rise of fascism is a is a product of capitalism. It didn’t just come out of some crazy–Adolf Hitler’s head. And if it hadn’t been Hitler, you know, in the German context, it probably would have been somebody else.

This relates to this idea of humane capitalism. In a similar crisis in the United States in the 1930s, yeah, instead of going towards overt fascism the United States at a time of deep unemployment, and thousands and tens of thousands of people roaming, looking for jobs, and next to no social safety net, and people moving West–and you know, you can read the book or watch the movie ‘The Grapes of Wrath.’ And you know, people were desperate. That is the kind of conditions that could have given rise to a fascism in the United States, but it didn’t. It gave rise to the New Deal.

TAYA GRAHAM: RIght. As a matter of fact, one of the viewers pointed that out, that we need to go back to the New Deal. We need to revisit it, go back to it, and then go beyond it. How do you respond to that?

PAUL JAY: Well, I would say yeah, go beyond it. If you go beyond it, then I would say yeah.

TAYA GRAHAM: How do you respond to that?

PAUL JAY: The New Deal was a hell of a lot better than going towards fascism. And I think at times of these deep crisis there’s not much of an in between. You go the FDR New Deal route, or you go to a very coercive state, and a very militarized state.

The thing with FDR is that in spite of what those policies were intended to do, in the end World War II does come because of the intercapitalist competition. Like, humane capitalism doesn’t work, certainly, for very long. Either because even domestically it was a product of trying to deal with severe crisis. and there’s no reason to think that once the crisis is over, capital doesn’t reassert itself. Which is exactly what happened after World War II.

What happens to the New Deal? It’s a continuous process of undoing it. And we did a whole series called Undoing the New Deal. And to some extent it begins with Truman. And each president afterwards, each administration afterwards, starts to undo the New Deal. Why? Because in this kind of balance of power between ordinary people and working people versus this kind of oligarchy, the ownership class, in the period leading up post-war, in the ’50s and ’60s, it is a place where there’s room for tremendous American expansion. You know, UK has been weakened, the Soviet Union was destroyed. Germany was destroyed. Tremendous–Japan was destroyed. Tremendous place for America to expand and grow. And enormous profit making.

And some of that did–you know, while trickle-down theory in general, I think, is not very legitimate, there was a certain kind of trickle down. Because to achieve domestic peace and to discredit socialism and communism, and because that was, you know, McCarthyism, House Un-American Activities Committee, late ’40s and throughout the ’50s, they wanted to purge the American workers movement. Hollywood. They want to get rid of the left. And so they were in competition with at least the promise of the Soviet Union. I mean, Soviet Union may have had–not may, Soviet Union had some terrible things wrong with the system. And it’s a long conversation why. We did a whole series of interviews with Alexander Buzgalin, I urge people to go watch it, that tries to analyze what happened to the Soviet Union. But when people came back from World War II after fighting fascism, and they were fighting for democracy and freedom and equality, and then they came home, and then they said to the American oligarchy in, like, 1946, they said, well, that’s great. How about we have some? How about here?

So, like, in 1946 there’s more worker strikes in the history of the United States before or since. So there’s a real need here to start crushing this worker’s militancy. The popularity of socialism. At the time the Soviet Union had a very good reputation, because they just played such a role in defeating Hitler. So trying to expunge all this from the society was a major priority. And one of those pieces is you do share some of the booty. You have this American expansion, this massive profits–like, it used to be an ordinary worker in the auto industry in Detroit would own a car, have no problems sending their kid to college. Would even own a cottage.

TAYA GRAHAM: Yeah. American dream.

PAUL JAY: They had–that upper, unionized stratum of the working class was doing extremely well. But it didn’t last. So this FDR New Deal, it can go for a time, but it’s not the nature of the beast of the capitalism. It’s not–at its heart it’s a temporary measure. Because what is at its heart? Not seeking fair profit. Its heart is seeking maximum profit. Why? Not because they’re bad people. It’s nothing to do with them being greedy, or some some moral-

TAYA GRAHAM: It’s the nature of the beast.

PAUL JAY: It’s the nature that if you don’t do it, the other guy is. And he’ll wipe you out. So the competitive pressure forces this striving for maximum profit. Now, within that you get a section of capital that’s a little bit more farsighted. And they say, OK, you should mitigate this a little bit. Like, have Social Security. Have a little bit of humane capitalism. Otherwise you’re going to-

TAYA GRAHAM: Do a little bit of philanthropy here, just a little pressure valve to let some of the steam off to make sure there isn’t a full revolution. Little pressure valve.

PAUL JAY: So yeah, have some of the social safety net. Otherwise the workers will get radicalized. And some sections of the elites feel better about themselves if they have it. This is more kind of in the Democratic Party. And the Republicans, and the certainly the right wing of the Republicans, they want unmitigated exploitation, because they think the workers are too weak to do anything about it anyway. And then enter globalization. And once you can play the Chinese working class off against the American working class, now you can start forgetting about humane capitalism. Because the problem isn’t about being humane. It’s the nature of how the economy works. And it’s the nature of the relationships that when you have this concentrated ownership, yeah, sure, you get the odd guy like Gates wants to give away a lot of money. But he doesn’t want to change who has power. So humane capitalism, listen, it’s better than inhumane capitalism. It’s just to think that you can have a system based on it, and that it’s sustainable, it’s naive. You can’t get there.

Now, I don’t know if we have time for the first question.

TAYA GRAHAM: You know what, I think we’re going to have to leave it there. I hope that for [sway ocean] that Paul Jay gave you a good response and a thorough response to your question. And we’re going to continue this conversation about socialism, what it looks like, what it could look like here in the U.S., and what it looks like around the world.

I’m here with Senior Editor Paul Jay. And if you haven’t already, please hit the subscribe button to our YouTube channel, or subscribe to join our email list so you can get Real News direct to your inbox. Thanks for your time. I’m Taya Graham.

https://therealnews.com/stories/humane-capitalism-or-fascism-and-war-qa-with-paul-jay
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 29, 2019, 10:32:59 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270115141816.png&hash=9e5b9256040e731f025e15fd44bffae1fc05d7c7)

Russia Defies US 🦍 Threats Over Venezuela

March 28, 2019

Trump insists Russia ‘get out’ of Venezuela; Vijay Prashad says Russia is protecting its own economic interests, billions in outstanding loans

https://youtu.be/2MX_LS_NqQA

https://therealnews.com/stories/russia-defies-us-threats-over-venezuela
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on March 31, 2019, 10:13:47 pm
(https://www.ae911truth.org/images/articles/2019/march_2019/FBI-lawsuit-press-conference.jpg)

Lawsuit to Force FBI Assessment of WTC Evidence: Interview with Richard Gage 👍, Dave Meiswinkle 👍, and Mick Harrison 👍

AE911Truth  March 31, 2019

On our most recent episode of 9/11 Free Fall, host Andy Steele is joined by the leaders of AE911Truth and the Lawyers’ Committee for 9/11 Inquiry to discuss our lawsuit filed this week against the FBI, which takes aim at the Bureau’s failure to include certain key evidence in its congressionally mandated 9/11 Review Commission Report from 2015. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

This show is recommended listening 🔊 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3) for all those who wish to have a deeper understanding of this historic litigation and how it may play out in the next one to two years. You can listen using YouTube or SoundCloud.

https://youtu.be/6kkQ-nMg8zk

https://www.ae911truth.org/news/517-lawsuit-to-force-fbi-assessment-of-wtc-evidence
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 24, 2019, 09:10:46 pm
Who’s Behind the Attacks in Sri Lanka?

April 23, 2019

In a series of coordinated attacks on Easter Sunday across central Sri Lanka, in Colombo, Negombo, Batticaloa and Dehiwela, more than 350 people have been killed and more than 500 people injured. Bombs were placed in three churches, three hotels, and one housing complex, and while no organization at this time has taken responsibility, Sri Lankan authorities have announced that the organization is the group National Thowheeth Jama’ath.

Sunanda Deshapriya told The Real News Network's Sharmini Peries that the focus on both churches and hotels—a clear attempt to destabilize Sri Lanka and its tourism industry—and the scale of the attacks suggests an “international dimension,” and that the attacks were coordinated with outside help. Together, they unpacked the ethnic and political complexities of the attacks.

Deshapriya explained it should be in part seen as a response to how Muslim youth are treated in the Sri Lanka.

“Nobody took interest about that growing militancy among the Muslim youth. One has to understand that radicalization of Muslim youth happened within Sri Lanka because of the injustice that the Muslim community faced in Sri Lanka. There's a total impunity in Sri Lanka against all the attack against minorities,” Deshapriya said. “Muslim people have faced...gang violence but nobody has been convicted. Nothing has happened. They have not had any justice on this issue. So that's the context of radicalization of Muslim youth in the country.”

Deshapriya explained that Sri Lanka's history of war and political violence must also be considered.

“We need to understand also Sri Lanka has 30 years of war. And from 1970, we had three major armed struggles. So, making bombs and using arms is part of the culture, the political culture of Sri Lanka actually,” Deshapriya said. “I suppose you can easily find material also to make this kind of very dangerous explosive bombs in the country because of our past situation and the war situations we've had in Sri Lanka.”

Peries pointed out that churches have not been a target of attacks in Sri Lanka in the past. Moreover, the Tamil are also Christians and were also victims of these recent attacks. For the most part, violence in Sri Lanka has been between Muslims and Buddhists (National Thowheeth Jama’ath, allegedly responsible for the attack, gained notoriety for defacing Buddhist temples).

"Targeting churches cannot be only a local reason, because there isn't any conflict between the Muslim community and the Christian community in the context. The Christian community has been very neutral during the war, as well as in the ongoing sporadic attacks against the Muslim mosque in the country,” Deshapriya said. “In that sense, I think this has an international dimension and it is the message it is attacking in the West, because Christianity comes from the West. But on the other hand you'll see that in Batticaloa Tamil, predominantly Tamil area, are also targeted, and there almost everyone who died is the Tamils. So, it is a combination of local and international situation. They want to send a message to Tamil people as well, I think, that's why they targeted some Batticaloa churches.”

https://youtu.be/w0vOwai4bi4

https://therealnews.com/stories/whos-behind-the-attacks-in-sri-lanka
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 24, 2019, 09:27:13 pm
Venezuela’s Parallel Ambassador Seated at OAS as Activists Defend Embassy

April 24, 2019

The Organization of American States allowed the ambassador of Venezuela's self-declared president to participate in his first meeting. The move could signal an attempt to take over Venezuela's embassy in DC, which activists are defending

https://youtu.be/8GNHPmqZxxM

Story Transcript

GREG WILPERT: There is reason to believe that the so-called interim and self-declared president of Venezuela, opposition leader Juan Guaidó, will attempt to take over Venezuela’s embassy in Washington DC very soon, with the help of the Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718205137.gif&hash=7a79df8ecf1b29d8599c26fe550e664c6c5e24bd) administration (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c). If this happens, the US government would be violating the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. On April 13th the US Secret Service already helped a Guaidó representative to take over the office of Venezuela’s military attaché in DC.

The takeover of diplomatic buildings and offices is taking place in the wake of an Organization of American States resolution of April 9th, in which – by a one-vote majority – the OAS permanent council decided to recognize Guaidó’s ambassador to the OAS. Guaidó’s representative, Gustavo Tarre, is now seated at OAS permanent council meetings. At his first council meeting on Tuesday he gave a presentation on Guaidó’s plans for Venezuela.

The meeting began, though, with a series of statements from OAS member countries that had opposed Tarre’s appointment. Here is what Bolivia’s ambassador had to say:
[CLIP]
Tarre later went on to outline a plan, as developed among opposition groups in Venezuela’s National Assembly, for how a Guaidó government would pursue an economic recovery plan for Venezuela. One of the main elements of the plan involved the procurement of multilateral loans:
[CLIP]
Meanwhile, activists from the groups Code Pink and Popular Resistance have decided to protect Venezuela’s embassy in Washington DC from a likely opposition take-over. They are acting with the permission of the government of Venezuela. The activists have been spending nights at the embassy and sponsoring almost daily events on a wide variety of issues, discussing the role of the CIA, the situation in Central America, and reports on the situation in Venezuela. Also, they have hung banners and informational placards, alerting to the possible opposition take-over of the building.

According to the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, embassies are sovereign and inviolable territory of the country to which the embassy belongs. Even though 50 out of the world’s nearly 200 governments – mostly in Latin America and in Europe – have decided to recognize Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s president, so far only Costa Rica has allowed the opposition to take over the Venezuelan embassy.

https://therealnews.com/stories/venezuelas-parallel-ambassador-seated-at-oas-as-activists-defend-embassy
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 26, 2019, 01:51:53 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

April 25, 2019 by Reuters

(https://3kbo302xo3lg2i1rj8450xje-wpengine.netdna-ssl.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/04/2019-04-25T112654Z_1524804868_RC1D0C7567B0_RTRMADP_3_CHINA-ARMY-ROCKETS.jpg)
FILE PHOTO – The aircraft carriers USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN 71) and USS Nimitz (CVN 68) are underway, conducting operations, in international waters as part of a three-carrier strike force exercise in western Pacific, November 12, 2017. File Photo: James Griffin/U.S. Navy via REUTERS

A person with ties to the Chinese leadership who once served in the military had a similar message: “If U.S. aircraft carriers come too close to our coastlines in a conflict, our missiles can destroy them.” 👀 (https://gcaptain.com/missile-gap-leaves-us-scrambling-china/)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 27, 2019, 05:31:59 pm
Agelbert NOTE: This Christian Pastor tells it like it is in this podcast. He says both Republicans and Democrats are consistent warmongers, our wars are Biblically CONDEMNED and an American Christian's "Founding Fathers" are named exclusively in the New Testament. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838) He makes it clear that our military us NOT for defensive purposes and gives several irrefutable examples of the bloodfest that American Wars have visited on other nations (and on Americans too).

He explains how War destroys the souls of American youth and gives statistics about how many, who did not die in combat, but were horribly scarred by their experience, eventually commit suicide because of the spiritual degradation caused by the depravity they were ordered to engage in during wars for profit.

From the slaughter of the Native Americans to the present, he makes it clear the the USA has ALWAYS been a wicked nation, and NEVER been a Christian nation.

🔊 The Military Industrial Complex ☠️ (https://www.sermonaudio.com/search.asp?speakerWithinSource=&subsetCat=&subsetItem=&mediatype=&includekeywords=&exactverse=&keyword=richesofgrace&keyworddesc=richesofgrace&currsection=&AudioOnly=false&SourceOnly=true&keywordwithin=military+industrial+complex&x=4&y=5)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 01, 2019, 12:24:49 pm
4*30*19~BOLIVARIAN UPDATE~REPORTS YOU WILL NOT HEAR ANYWHERE ELSE
5,262 views

https://youtu.be/cD1dnRVAHk4

Florida Maquis
Published on Apr 30, 2019

4*30*19~THE EVENT,...THAT WASN'T...*FIZZLE FIZZLE...FAIL! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)
9,944 views

https://youtu.be/FauIdXexO88

Florida Maquis
Published on Apr 30, 2019
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 01, 2019, 02:32:55 pm
Venezuela’s Guaidó (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-080419191019.png&hash=a449294ee6fe2dfdea44c1c501f4439b9ac69c26) Falsely Claims Military Uprising in Progress: Mainstream (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) Media Falls in Line

April 30, 2019

Tuesday morning self-declared president and opposition leader Juan Guaidó called on the military and the population to oppose the Maduro government. Only a few thousand civilians and very few soldiers heeded the call. Mike Fox reports from Caracas

https://youtu.be/R0LpW15z-Mw

https://therealnews.com/stories/venezuela-guaido-military-uprising
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 14, 2019, 09:18:20 pm
Guaidó 😈 Calls for US Military 🦍Cooperation, but few Venezuelans Support the Move
May 14, 2019

Parallel president and opposition leader Juan Guaidó says he would like to coordinate with the US military, but following his failed April 30th coup attempt, few Venezuelans show interest. Mike Fox reports from Caracas

https://youtu.be/xssQeJIUs0I

https://therealnews.com/stories/guaido-calls-for-us-military-cooperation-but-few-venezuelans-support-the-move
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 14, 2019, 09:21:28 pm
Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F809_84688966.jpeg&hash=7f3e84eea23fef901b7df618784dc2005290f591) Provokes Iran With Intensified Economic War
May 14, 2019

Trump and Bolton’s strategy is to bait Iran into a war Bolton’s wanted for twenty years - says Trita Parsi, President of the NIAC

https://youtu.be/q3QgGgEGo_A

https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-provokes-iran-with-intensified-economic-war

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 22, 2019, 10:18:03 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/f4Bw3bMOrVzZAcQ-1kcY93OsPlZ2QF5kfWWdz0kg1SCgq5Vq7K83bRHxTQphFK1cBDI3QoN8QOxV05pg-bX8UvXf1NE5pA3ytRzuWh7_d6PATw--33YSPRahQXfaI2ACunu8ealGWG3g=s0-d-e1-ft#https://therealnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/DLY051619_prashad_iran-1024x576.jpg)
🦕 Pompeo (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F780_9adc777a0e08428257b76ece69d18ee52006bb5e39d60d966bb2440d29d17641.jpeg&hash=4d8f2f9ea7b952c63ad0441a4619e9b370ddcb0a) shaking hands with 🦖 Putin

May 19, 2019

Trump-Bolton Aggression Against Iran Contained by Russia, Japan, China, and EU

Vijay Prashad says the very dangerous statements, economic sanctions and military aggression unleashed by Washington this week against Iran was countered by cool headed diplomacy by Japan, Russia, EU and China

https://youtu.be/J7mjlwWuj8Q

https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-bolton-aggression-against-iran-contained-by-russia-japan-china-and-eu
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 22, 2019, 10:44:45 pm
SNIPPETS from Doomstead Diner Daily 5/21 HEADLINES: (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/general-discussion/doomstead-diner-daily/msg12427/#msg12427)

Trumplethinskin (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-231218145827.png&hash=8d3bbb761cf17fcddac83f24088d26e316b65e33) is getting rather desperate to wag (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a) the (i.e. raise the price of OIL for his Hydrocarbon 🦕👹🦖 Hellspawn owners - so they won't help throw him under the impeachment bus - while simultaneously taking the world's attention away from his rather blatant financial crimes history now being discussed here and there publicly) "evil Iran" dog.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201645-1486464.jpeg&hash=bfa44b2ee2b1d6d1ea71a024b1bd6e9cf1328326)

It ain't workin' because way too many people are onto this false flag SCAM the US Government has used WAY TOO OFTEN (i.e. sinking the battleship Maine, Gulf of Tonkin, Bush fooling Saddam into invading Kuwait in 1991, 9/11, Shrub Iraq "WMD" lie, etc. SEE: 😈 One EVIL Trick Pony (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/climate-change/u-s-history-politics-climate-change-trump-impeachment-standing-rock-context/msg12423/#msg12423)).

This comment I read today says it all:

Quote
DEDA CVETKO

Why should Iran talk to the US government? It was the Trump administration - at the behest and request of the Israelis and their Saudi brethren - that broke the Iran nuclear deal, not the other way around. And the wide consensus of the entire civilized world is that Iran did act honorably and did uphold its share of the deal. No doubt about this. None whatsoever...

You know, your signature on a piece of binding international treaty - even when the signature is that of the preceding president - is not merely an autograph memorabilia. It is a serious, legally binding commitment which ties the entire nation into a very serious, meaningful set of interlocking, mutually reciprocal obligations with the contractual counterparty. An international contract actually obligates the signatory to act in a good-faith manner and to prevent deliberate sabotaging of the contract. 

Indeed. My only quibble with this fellow, who is probably an intelligent and perceptive Iranian, and obviously a caring, responsible human being, is the timing of when, precisely, the US Government declared war on ALL humanity.

I think it's been a while.


As long as 🦕 Iran, and all the other 🐉🦕🦖 countries that export oil and gas, keep doing that ☠️ instead of transitioning to 100% Renewable energy, they are on the wrong side of that war against ALL humanity.

You've cut right to the nut of it.

Your commenter points out the futility of "talking" to the government of the US. We have signaled that "treaties" are as binding as the administration that enters them, and that naked self interest trumps all other considerations. The Native peoples of this country try could have told them.

No one should be surprised that Trump will declare global thermonuclear war to defend the prerogatives of the ailment, or to save his own ass.

Join me in a chorus of "Support da troops."

Well said.

The sentence snippet read in the following screenshot is not what it seems.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/styles/renewablerevolution/files/4613_Class%20number%2010%20Romero%20Institute.png)

Daniel Sheehan 👍 is reading a truth from the former FBI chief which was fired by Trump. While the words are true, Sheehan makes a point of saying that the framing is duplicitous.

The reason for that is that Comey is pushing the "most of the top people in government are principled (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) and a few bad apples like Trump mess all this up" meme. That is the COVER. That is the GUISE.

Sheehan makes it clear, in so many words, that this type of prose is used to lull people to sleep while the fascist takeover of our government, now nearly complete, proceeds under this cover.

The FACT is that, as things ARE now, you do not even get a chance to reach a high position in the U.S. Government unless you are ALREADY compromised. Principled behavior is verbotten in the U.S. Government.

 
(https://images.dailykos.com/images/604450/story_image/NO45-1024x1024.jpg?1540657700)(https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/f269a0531f54fd1c1618278fe0144f1a4c83cc284aa96b523caece2ad390f752.jpg)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 25, 2019, 05:55:59 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F809_84688966.jpeg&hash=7f3e84eea23fef901b7df618784dc2005290f591)

Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-080419191019.png&hash=a449294ee6fe2dfdea44c1c501f4439b9ac69c26) Offers No Evidence of Iranian Threat or Terrorism

May 24, 2019

Eugene Puryear and Paul Jay discuss the hypocrisy of Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270117175421.png&hash=cf39e823dd9156833bfa885808a876bf518bd0d6) allying with 👹 Saudi Arabia, the largest sponsor of global terror, over concerns about alleged Iranian terrorism

https://youtu.be/teeVcuSglQI

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay.

On Friday, President Trump announced that he’s going to use a special provision of some old law to allow him to sell arms to Saudi Arabia without having any approval from Congress. And he’s also sending 1,500 more troops to the Middle East to “protect U.S. interests in the region,” we’re using the word ‘alleged,’ because he didn’t, Iranian threats. Earlier this month the Trump administration already sent thousands of additional troops to the region, along with an aircraft carrier strike group, four bomber aircraft, and fighter jets. Here’s what Trump had to say at a Rose Garden press conference.

DONALD TRUMP 🦀: We want to have protection in the Middle East. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030815183114.gif&hash=2bf1553e87e8605311feb874231953d5fb88ee9c)  We’re going to be sending a relatively small number of troops, mostly protective, aome very talented 🦍 people are going to the Middle East right now. And we’ll see how. And we’ll see what 😈 happens. Well I think it’s going to be very good in the Middle East. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-080419191019.png&hash=a449294ee6fe2dfdea44c1c501f4439b9ac69c26) Iran has been a as you know they staged terror all over the world.(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191017140758.jpeg&hash=8c0a35a928dcda3c1a8714ab03f4924a1a775851) They’re a much different country now than when I first got here when I first got here. They were at 14 different locations fighting.
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PAUL JAY: I don’t know what he’s talking about about the 14 different locations. I wish someone in the press corps had actually asked them to name the 14. I think it’s questionable if he could name 14 countries. Number two, what are these terrorist acts that Iran is responsible all over the world? It’d have been nice if someone in the press corps had asked him to name, say, three terrorist acts that Iran’s responsible, all over the world. And of course, the threat is coming from Iran, as the United States moves an aircraft carrier, jet fighters, and thousands of troops towards Iran. So the question is who’s threatening who, here.

Now, there’s the idea that the threat level from Iran has increased. It was dismissed by a British general. His name is Major General Chris Ghika, if I’m pronouncing it correctly. Here’s what he said.

CHRIS GHIKA: No, there’s been no increased threat from Iranian-backed forces in Iraq and Syria. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132421-16902.gif&hash=deba9f0f91ecd7d65bbdeb78786bef4a98cb1a7e)

PAUL JAY: So where’s the evidence? And it’s quite remarkable that in the media now, in CNN and other media, because they have been on such an anti-Trump bandwagon, there’s a very interesting moment taking place where they’re not completely buying into all this anti-Iranian rhetoric, because they’re so out to get Trump. So there’s something–I find that there’s something positive in all the craziness that’s been going on in the corporate media.

Anyway, to talk about all of this, now joining me from Washington is Eugene Puryear. He’s a journalist and author and activist, a regular contributor to The Real News Network. He’s also the co-founder of Stop Police Terror Project DC. Thanks for joining us, Eugene.

EUGENE PURYEAR: Happy to be here, Paul. Thanks for asking me.

PAUL JAY: So the Middle East, again, is even more a tinder box. What do you make of what’s happening?

EUGENE PURYEAR: Well, you know, the first thing I thought seeing the increase in troops and the arm sales is sort of shades of Desert Shield in the wake of Desert Storm. It was clear then that the George H.W. Bush administration, they knew what they wanted to do, but they had to create this posture of defensiveness, the line drawn in the sand. They were selling Patriot missile batteries to Saudi Arabia. They were sending all these troops there. And I think as we’ve seen in the commentary from the British general, there’s been no change in the status quo. And quite frankly, I mean, what possible threats has Iran done? I mean, in fact, most of the Iranian activity in countries like Iraq, for instance, has been in the direction of what President Trump said he wanted over several years, which was the fighting against ISIS.

So I think we’ve seen relatively consistently here that it’s a complete and total canard. Given the forces that Iran has in the region, if they wanted to do something they certainly could have by now, and certainly have not. Have consistently said they do not. But this sort of defensively-based military buildup to me seems very much like shades of war, and an attempt to provide an alibi ahead of time, or whatever may happen, a Gulf of Tonkin incident, or maybe something more real than the Gulf of Tonkin incident. But by upping the escalation ladder, as they say in military parlance, puts themselves in a better position to be able to launch an offensive war against Iran.

PAUL JAY: Yeah. I mean, again, the corporate media has completely not been on this story sinceTrump became president. But at Real News we’ve been saying from day one of his presidency, frankly even before, during the campaign, that this administration is focused on bringing down the government of Iran. It’s the number one foreign policy priority for a lot of reasons, not the least of which, if you want to be the global hegemon, it means you have to be the hegemon in every region. And most particularly you’ve got to be the hegemon in the region where there’s oil. And if the bigger picture foreign policy objective is, I don’t know, the containment of China, whatever that means, then again you want to control all the oil from the Middle East so you can use that as leverage against China, as well. And from the beginning, Trump has been appointing cabinet ministers, secretaries of state, secretaries of defense, national security advisers, and each appointment is a more rabid advocate of overthrowing the government in Iran. And of course now with John Bolton, you have the most rabid advocate of that you could possibly find in the foreign policy establishment. But why do you think they’re pushing this so much now, interestingly enough, after he supposedly got cleared by the Mueller report?

EUGENE PURYEAR: Yeah, you know, it’s an interesting piece, and I’m glad you brought up Bolton. It’s worth noting that both Bolton and Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani have been paid huge sums of money, into the six figures, to actually give speeches in favor of Iranian regime change. They’re not only advocating it, but have benefited quite handsomely from it. But you know, I think the timing here is interesting. I mean, I think certainly from the point of view of Bolton and others, I’m sure it’s one of those you’ve got to try to get it in while you can, especially before 2020. I don’t think most people want a war with Iran. And so I don’t think this is the type of thing the political hands in the White House are going to want to see, probably not now, but certainly not in 2020. But there may be sort of a political window there that it is a major issue. That was always a big issue in the Reagan administration, for instance, in terms of covert action and overt action in Central America. Election year timetables and the like.

I think also you have the issue of Trump not only being cleared from the Mueller–allegedly being cleared by the Mueller report, as it were, but then being still in a situation where, quite frankly, the only thing he’s been able to do so far to bring the media to his side, to bring any Democrats to his side, have been these military strikes. I mean, certainly we’ve seen the missiles launched against Syria, for instance. have seen some of the most bipartisan praise that Trump has gotten. So in many ways, given that the Democrats and many subsets of the Democrats who are very heavily in tune with pro-Israeli forces, would also like to see more aggressive action against Iran. It also, I think, is a way for him to shore up his own support, to create narratives around the Trump administration that are more positive for him, to tamp down criticism from elements of the Democratic Party, because he’s pursuing a major agenda for many of them.

So I think all of that plays into it. But I think also it’s just a fact that the pieces in place right now–Bolton is in place. Pompeo is in place again. His personal lawyer, which is maybe not relevant to the cabinet, but somebody he’s talking to on an everyday basis who aggressively is for Iran, they’re all lined up. They’re all ready to go. So it may just be the chorus of voices now is so consistently pro-Iran, this is why it’s ramping up at this stage.

PAUL JAY: I mean, you said the voices are so pro-Iran? I mean, pro-Iran government change. Yeah. You mentioned something I think is interesting.

You mentioned Bolton getting paid money. That’s that’s from the MEK, which is an organization even the United States has called terrorist in the past, and so has the United Nations; an anti-Iranian government organization that was based mostly in Iraq. But in fact they did, it seems, pay Bolton $50,000. And there was a very interesting moment on the Sunday morning show on Fox hosted by Chris Wallace where Chris interviews the Iranian ambassador, and–or I’m sorry, the Iranian foreign minister. And he directly accuses Bolton of taking this $50,000. And then Wallace interviews Bolton and asks him about it. Doesn’t specifically try to nail him on the $50,000. But Bolton doesn’t deny it, either. Here’s that clip.

So, Eugene, you also mentioned that the Democrats–I think we should be specific. There’s a section of the Democratic Party that’s very much for regime change in Iran. And I guess the most obvious spokesmen for it is Chuck Schumer, who went, as you mentioned, when Trump threw some missiles at Syria, he said Trump’s finally acting in a presidential way. And of course, Chuck Schumers of this world, of the Democratic Party, are very gung-ho in this anti-Iranian camp. But there are sections of the Democratic Party that really come out. I know Sanders isn’t officially in the Democratic Party, but he and others, and many of these progressive members of Congress have been quite outspoken against an attack on Iran. Don’t you think that’s significant?

EUGENE PURYEAR: I do think it’s significant. And I think Bernie Sanders has been leading the pack on this issue. I mean, it will be very interesting to me to see how it plays out in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, where you have individuals like Representative Ilhan Omar, who has also been outspoken on this issue, but it’s chaired by Eliot Engel, who certainly hasn’t been as vociferous, and in some ways has at times been critical, and differing from those like Chuck Schumer, but is generally more along the lines of at least more sort of aggressive action towards Iran.

So it’ll be interesting to see inside some of those committees there will be clashes between Democrats. I do think it’s significant, because really what we saw right after President Obama left office was that many of the Democrats who actually supported the Iran deal under him really just ran in the other direction when it came under assault and came under attack from Republicans and the Trump administration. So it was unclear whether or not there would be any sort of outspoken opposition I think we have seen with one–and I mentioned Ilhan Omar–sort of the new crop of some of the younger and more progressive people who have come in and spoken out against this. I believe Elizabeth Warren, if I’m not mistaken, last week raised at least some questions-

PAUL JAY: And certainly Tulsi Gabbard has, as well.

EUGENE PURYEAR: Tulsi Gabbard has, and she has been very outspoken on this issue, and really centering her campaign around issues of ending war and militarism more so than any other candidate. So it’s an interesting dance, because it seems that people who are running for president, who of course are more in tune or need to try to be more in tune with sort of the forces on the ground, as it were, are being more critical of this than we’re seeing from Democrats in Congress. But we’re seeing more. I think it’s part of an evolving issue. I think we also saw this with Venezuela, for instance, where you had a number of Democrats jump 100 percent on the regime change bandwagon. But then you saw Ilhan Omar cross-examine Elliott Abrams. Julian Castro is also running for president. Also had some critical comments there. Ro Khanna and others who have also been outspoken on the Iran issue. So it seems like on a number of different issues you’re starting to see, finally, after a long time of complete unanimity, some brakes on the regime change-style foreign policy approaches that have been quite bipartisan for some time.

PAUL JAY: And there’s some very interesting, even kind of weird, fracture lines. The resolution on Yemen, withdrawing any U.S. support for the Saudi war in Yemen. Trump eventually vetoed it, but in the Senate it actually got some Republican support, including Lindsey Graham. And now there’s another kind of weird split on this use of this emergency provision to sell arms to the Saudis without any Senate approval. Both Lindsey Graham and Rand Paul are opposing it. And there seems to be this weird thing where Trump is so connected to supporting Mohammed bin Salman and Saudi Arabia in spite of, you know, the chopping up, killing of Khashoggi, and other–you know, what Lindsey Graham describes as like wild and loose cannon activity. So the Trump camp seems very aligned with the Saudis, but Lindsey Graham, who typically is very much for a regime change in Iran and usually has been pro-Saudi, now he’s actually saying that Trump shouldn’t sell these arms to the Saudis. A lot of weird fracture lines.

EUGENE PURYEAR: Yeah, it is interesting to see how this is playing. I mean, it seemed to me, at least, that since the murder of Jamal Khashoggi there are more and more Republicans and some Democrats who have been almost completely uncritical of Saudi Arabia critical towards Iran. But I think they want to see Saudi Arabia face some sort of punishment, something that appears as if the United States is playing some role as a restraining factor. And I think we saw even with the Saudi Arabia and Qatar split, there were a number of individuals, James Mattis, for instance, who was trying to use some of his diplomatic capital as defense secretary to bridge that gap. And I think Mohammed bin Salman, who has really broken apart the U.S. led security apparatus in the Gulf by aggressively pushing this split with Qatar, and what that has to the broader peace, pushing Qatar more into the camp of Iran, in terms of how their [inaudible] things. The Yemen war, the Khashoggi situation. I think that it’s viewed as being highly problematic by leading forces in the U.S. establishment who may want to help Saudi Arabia, but feel like the sort of loose cannon aspect, to use that same phrase, of Mohammed bin Salman is undermining their ability to really act in a supportive way, because it’s so openly immoral, quite frankly, on so many different levels that people are asking questions, well, why would you back Saudi Arabia? What’s going on with the United States that has so much influence over this country. But you do not want to do anything there?

So I think a lot of this is cosmetic, in some ways. But on the same token, because the Trump administration is so intransigent, and the Saudis, of course, are continuing to do whatever they want, because of that it’s causing individuals like Lindsey Graham to have to be more strident and more critical. So I think they want to go back to sort of the King Abdullah status quo here, the long-term status quo of how things were in Saudi Arabia, and in the Gulf more broadly. But they’re having difficulty doing that because of Trump’s just complete in-the-pocket approach to MBS.

PAUL JAY: Yeah. I think Graham’s basic critique is that MBS is not a reliable partner in bringing down the government of Iran. It’s not that Graham has different objectives there. He just thinks that MBS is nuts. And he actually used so many words. The hold on your picture just went freaky.

Just finally I think it’s important to talk about just what the U.S. strategy in Iran is, towards Iran is. One, they are already waging a war, an economic war. The sanctions are crippling. And these sanctions are essentially illegal, this kind of collective punishment against the Iranian people that these sanctions are mostly affecting is a violation of international law. Iran is not an imminent threat to the United States. But number two, the movement of all this military might towards Iran, from what my Iranian friends are telling me, they think is more in the realm of a psyop to create this maximum pressure on Iran. Because what they really–the real strategy is about fomenting civil war in Iran. There’s apparently the Saudis and the Americans are involved in trying to arm Sunni populations within Iran. They’re trying to find other ways to have various divisions amongst the Iranian people. And I have friends, for example, in Los Angeles that have been in the past, mostly, tremendously critical of the theocracy in the Iranian government. And now they’re actually defending it, because they see what the U.S. policy is leading to is turning Iran into another mess like Iraq.

EUGENE PURYEAR: Yeah, I think that is exactly right. I think obviously–I mean, maybe this is true, but it seems as fantastical that they would actually want a war with Iran. I mean, you know, just look at the history of the Iran-Iraq war, and I think it’s easy to see how difficult that would be.

But I think historically, I mean, the policy of sanctions, certainly the way they were used on Iraq, is explicitly designed to try to increase the pressure, increase the pain, increase divisions in the political establishment. And certainly, you know, those have been quite on display in the past couple years, really, since President Ahmadinejad stepped down or his term was over. A lot of the divisions between more “moderate” forces, more conservative forces. And I think that’s a big piece of it. I think just, to again reference the Iran-Iraq war, certainly for Saddam Hussein, that was a major piece of his strategy was to try to find ways to break apart different ethnic groups, different sects of Islam, or whatever it may be in order to weaken the country internally. That seems like a more logical strategy than just an outright direct war, which I’m not sure the United States can even really carry out to the degree necessary. I mean, even though 120,000 troops that was at once rumored, it’s not even close to what they’d need, and the length and the intensity would be outrageous.

I think what they’re hoping for here is either wanting to force Iran into some sort of, you know, just completely total Carthaginian-style surrender, which I don’t think will happen. But that could happen if they can provoke a greater economic collapse, or if they’re able to break the country apart, because in some ways that’s the second best option. Like, if you could not have regime change in Iran, you can certainly try to hobble the country of Iran and have a situation like, say, Libya, where the country is divided between four or five different groups. And I think we can see other times in the past where this has been a key element of different countries trying to undermine different countries. So I think certainly they would hope for either a complete capitulation, or internal regime change. I think they’re more than willing to settle for hobbling the country by having armed groups, if not break the country apart, at least start to create a level of chaos to where Iran, which is a powerful economy in many different ways, certainly regionally, but also internationally, hobbling it from being able to play that role.

PAUL JAY: Yeah. I just–to agree with you, and I’m going to end it with me agreeing with you. If they actually care about international terrorism, then how do you ally with Saudi Arabia, which is without question the country that has supported more international terrorism than any other country on earth? If you’re worried about Iran and its repression, domestic repression. And certainly there is domestic repression in Iran, political repression. But it’s nothing compared to the repression in Saudi Arabia, where they cut young people’s heads off for blogging criticism. The hypocrisy of the American position is really unbelievable, and such that while the corporate media, like CNN and MSNBC is maybe poking some holes in the increased Iranian threat at this time, and what Trump’s doing, because they’re so anti-Trump, they never go after the underlying assumption of the U.S.-Saudi relationship, or even ask, you know, where is all this international terrorism that Iran supports? Where is it? It really comes down to Iran’s support for Hezbollah in Lebanon. And some support for Hamas, which is–Hezbollah defends Lebanese sovereignty. And that’s what they’ve done. And at any rate, it comes down to what you said, what I said at the beginning, and the corporate media just won’t deal with this issue. This is all about regional hegemony requires total hegemony. And Iran is outside the American umbrella. And that, in the mindset of the John Boltons and others of this world, go right back the Project for a New American Century thinking, there can’t be such a thing on planet Earth as governments that have actual independence and some military political power that are not under direct American control.

EUGENE PURYEAR: Absolutely.

PAUL JAY: All right. Well, we’ll end it here. Thanks very much for joining us, Eugene.

EUGENE PURYEAR: Thanks so much for having me.

PAUL JAY: And thank you for joining us on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/trump-offers-no-evidence-of-iranian-threat-or-terrorism

Agelbert NOTE: The media won't deal with the real issue (i.e. The MIC owned US Petro-State wants FULL SPECTRUM DOMINANCE hegemony forevah and evah, amen) because they are part of MIC's propaganda arm, PERIOD.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201645-1486464.jpeg&hash=bfa44b2ee2b1d6d1ea71a024b1bd6e9cf1328326)

God help us because we will all perish waiting for anybody else to.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-140216175259.jpeg&hash=128079ac7036df5bba09b5391709ac9c092d3ee7)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 28, 2019, 06:03:16 pm
Agelbert NOTE: No, this story does not belong in the "Money" Topic thread. Yes, it definitely belongs in the "War Provocations" Topic thread. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)


May 28, 2019

China (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fthumbs.dreamstime.com%2Fz%2Fchinese-emoticon-22648577.jpg&hash=e5f417f773692d246a108dcc451657cb8b2c6e05) & Russia (https://i.ytimg.com/vi/D_fWMystzdQ/hqdefault.jpg) Jointly Boycott Trump's "Deal (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) Of The Century" Mideast Peace Conference (https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-28/china-russia-jointly-boycott-trumps-deal-century-mideast-peace-conference)

Quote
youshallnotkill
Quote
Trump’s ‘deal of the century’ will go to hell — Palestinian Leader Mahmoud Abbas said.

That's were it came from to begin with.
Yep.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on May 29, 2019, 12:16:58 pm
MAY 27, 2019

Today on the Memorial Day edition of TRUNEWS we discuss the murderous betrayal Israel carried out against the most decorated vessel from a single engagement in U.S. history. In part one of this powerful story, we are joined by survivor Phillip Tourney, a damage controlman who fought to put out napalm fires that day; and retired sailor turned author, David Gahary, to detail the intentional butchering of Americans, chronicled in their new book, “Erasing the Liberty.” Rick Wiles, Matt Skow, Phillip Tourney, David Gahary. Airdate: 5/27/19.

SIX DAY WAR MASSACRE: USS LIBERTY VETERANS REVEAL TRUTH ABOUT ISRAELI ATTACK (PART 1) (https://www.trunews.com/stream/six-day-war-massacre-uss-liberty-veterans-reveal-truth-about-israeli-attack-part-1)


Six Day War Massacre: USS Liberty Veterans Reveal Truth About Israeli Attack (Part 2)

https://youtu.be/uWMW0lnMd5o
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 04, 2019, 07:02:42 pm
The U.S. Cult ☠️ of Bombing and Endless War

BY William J. Astore, TomDispatch

PUBLISHED June 4, 2019

U.S. wars are increasingly waged from the air, not on the ground -- a reality that makes the prospect of ending them ever more daunting. The desire to minimize U.S. "boots on the ground" and domestic resistance to war has made air power an abstraction for American decision-makers while subjecting people in foreign lands to a steady diet of "Made in USA" bombs and missiles.

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/the-us-cult-of-bombing-and-endless-war/)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 06, 2019, 08:31:50 pm
D-Day: How the US Supported Hitler’s Rise to Power

June 6, 2019

On June 6, 1944, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, opening a second front against German fascism. The largest contingents of fighters were British, American, and Canadian. This battle has been depicted in movies and books as the decisive turning point of World War II, a ferocious struggle against a superior enemy. But as The Real News Network's Paul Jay and author Peter Kuznick discuss, D-Day was also the moment where the United States' opposition to communism could no longer outweigh its tacit acceptance of Nazism, and the U.S. industrialists who helped rearm Germany after World War I could no longer profit from Hitler's Germany.

“In the aftermath of [World War I], there was such strong anti-war sentiment throughout Europe and throughout the United States that people were very, very loath to get involved in another war, and they were willing to tolerate things they perhaps shouldn't have,” Kuznick said. “The attitude in the United States was that the United States had been effectively suckered into the war by the munitions manufacturers and the bankers. That instead of it being a noble cause to make the world safe for democracy, to fight the war to end all wars, it was really a war to secure the vast Morgan loans to the British and the French and way to fatten the coffers of DuPont and the other munitions makers.”

This opposition to war is why the U.S. and other countries tolerated German rearmament in the '30s, and in the case of many American manufacturers, helped Germany rearm. GM, IBM, and Ford played a major role in rearming Germany. Jay mentioned that in 1938, Hitler even gave notorious anti-Semite and anti-unionist Henry Ford the Grand Cross of the German Eagle, the highest medal a foreigner could receive from the Nazi party. Then, going into World War II, the U.S.'s “big underlying strategy,” Jay explained, was to allow Germany and Russia to fight and “kill each other,” even as the Soviet Union wanted “the British and the Americans and Canadians to join a united front or a broad front of alliance against Hitler as far back as 1939.”

Kuznick explained that then-Senator Harry Truman suggested that the U.S. support whoever was winning the war, whether that was the Russians or the Germans. Moreover, U.S. neutrality in the Spanish Civil War was an example of how extreme post-World War I anti-war sentiments were—as well as a missed opportunity to prevent fascism from spreading.

All of this was happening at the same time that U.S. industrialists were rearming Hitler's Germany, and making money from it.

“There are a lot of American elites who were involved in helping finance and helping rearm and helping rebuild the German economy during this period,” Kuznick said. “A lot of those folks who we call the ‘Greatest Generation' were Nazi enablers, and many of them saw the Nazis as a bulwark against Bolshevism, as against communism, and were therefore happy and willing to support and allow and tolerate and turn a blind eye to the rearmament of Germany during this time because they saw the Nazis as the way to stop the Communists and the Soviet Union.”

https://youtu.be/MaWz42tmxug

Story Transcript

PAUL JAY: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Paul Jay.

On June 6, 1944, the Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France, and opened a second front against German fascism. The largest contingents of fighters were British, American, and Canadian. This battle has been depicted in movies and books as the decisive turning point of World War II, a ferocious struggle against a superior enemy. Here’s Donald Trump in London speaking about D-Day and the triumph of those soldiers.

DONALD TRUMP: On June 6, 1944, tens of thousands of young warriors left these shores by the sea and air to begin the invasion of Normandy and the liberation of Europe and the brutal Nazi occupation. It was a liberation like few people have seen before. Among them were more than 130,000 American and British brothers in arms. Through their valor and sacrifice they secured our homelands and saved freedom for the world.

PAUL JAY: No doubt the soldiers who sacrificed in the tens of thousands, killed and wounded, did wage a valiant and courageous fight. My father was in the Canadian Air Force, attached to the RAF, and was part of a mission to arm and support the French partisans. Most of my father’s fellow airmen were killed. Like many vets, my dad did not like talking about the war and he was not filled with stories of triumph and heroism, although surely he and millions of others were such heroes. But was D-Day the dramatic turning point in the war? Was the role of the United States the critical difference in the defeat of the Nazis? And what really drove the decisions that led to so much horror and death?

Now joining us from Washington is Peter Kuznick. He’s a professor of history and director of the Nuclear Studies Institute at American University. He’s the author of The Untold History of the United States, co-written with Oliver Stone, as well as Rethinking the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Thanks for joining us, Peter.

PETER KUZNICK: Hi, Paul.

PAUL JAY: So before we get into D-Day and what happened there, and what the significance of D-Day was, I think there’s sort of a bigger backstory here about the rise of Hitler and Hitlerite militarism. And I always understood that the Versailles treaty after the end of World War I, one of the most important parts of that treaty, was that Germany should never be allowed to rearm. And the second [war] should never have been possible. What happened?

PETER KUZNICK: Well, that’s actually a long and complicated story, partly that also is a product of World War I. You have to remember that in the aftermath of the war, there was such strong anti-war sentiment throughout Europe and throughout the United States that people were very, very loath to get involved in another war, and they were willing to tolerate things they perhaps shouldn’t have. The attitude in the United States was that the United States had been effectively suckered into the war by the munitions manufacturers and the bankers; that instead of it being a noble cause to make the world safe for democracy, to fight the war to end all wars, it was really a war to secure the vast Morgan loans to the British and the French, and a way to fatten the coffers of DuPont and the other munitions makers.

PAUL JAY: And this is–you’re talking about the first World War.

PETER KUZNICK: Yeah, the first World War. Because there’s such strong anti-war sentiment that nobody really wants to get involved in World War–another war in Europe in the 1930s. So they tolerate German rearmament in ways that they shouldn’t have, even though they were aware this was taking place. And as you know, it was more than just tolerating it. The American manufacturers were involved in helping it happen.

One of my Ph.D. students recently completed an excellent dissertation about the role of GM, IBM, and Ford in rebuilding the German economy in the 1930s, and helping directly, in the case of GM and Ford, with German rearmament. They were willing to do things to support the German military they were not willing to do to rearm in the United States during this period. And they stayed involved in ways that really defied U.S. law up until the war actually began. And then during the war their subsidiaries in Europe continued to produce, continued to make profits, which they were able to accrue after the war ended. In fact, GM and Ford were able to sue the U.S. government for millions of dollars for reparations for their plants that the U.S. bombed and destroyed in Europe during the war that were producing for the Nazis. So American business had a shameful record.

PAUL JAY: Talk about the story of Henry Ford, because it’s a good–it’s not just Henry Ford. The sections of the American elites, the British elites, including the king of England, who now–we now know didn’t step down because of his marriage to an American woman. He really stepped down because he was so pro-Hitler he became an embarrassment. And Henry Ford himself gets some kind of award from Hitler.

PETER KUZNICK: Yes, Henry Ford got an award. Henry Ford–there were some good things one might say about Henry Ford, but we have to also note that he was viciously anti-union, and that he was a vicious anti-Semite. His newspaper reprinted the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, helped popularize that myth, that falsity, throughout America; spewed anti-Semitism in his publications, and his personal life. Hitler had a portrait of Henry Ford above his desk in his office. And Hitler said, Henry Ford is my hero. And that was in part because of his anti-Semitism, and a lot of his other reactionary ideas that-

PAUL JAY: Henry Ford used to send Hitler money on his birthday every year.

PETER KUZNICK: And then the Germans did give Henry Ford an award, and Henry Ford was happy to accept it. He later tries to change the record and say that he wasn’t a supporter of Hitler, but I think clearly the Ford Motor Company was doing Germany’s bidding. But it wasn’t just that. It was Prescott Bush. It was the uncle of George Bush, and father, and grandfather, who was very much instrumental in working with Brown Brothers Harriman, and got called on the carpet for this during the war with the Trading with the Enemies Act.

So there are a lot of American elites who were involved in helping finance and helping rearm and helping rebuild the German economy during this period. It’s a shameful episode. Oliver and I go into it in some depth in the documentary Untold History and the book of Untold History because we think it’s a very important story that gets swept under the carpet when we’re talking about these people being the greatest generation. A lot of those folks who we call the ‘greatest generation’ were Nazi enablers, and many of them saw the Nazis as a bulwark against Bolshevism, as against communism, and were therefore happy and willing to support and allow and tolerate and turn a blind eye to the rearmament of Germany during this time, because they saw the Nazis as the way to stop the Communists and the Soviet Union.

PAUL JAY: And wasn’t that really the–that was the big underlying strategy, wasn’t it? They thought that the Germans would march east, not west, and that if there was a war with Germany and Russia that would just be hunky dory for the West. Let the Germans and these Russians kill each other.

PETER KUZNICK: Among those who explicitly stated that was Senator Harry Truman, who on the floor of the Senate said if the Germans are winning we support the Russians, and if the Russians are winning we support the Germans. And that way let them kill as many of each other as possible. That was not Roosevelt’s attitude. But we had time, we had chances to intervene to prevent this. One of the key episodes in the rise of fascism, the spread of fascism, was the Spanish Civil War. And the U.S. maintained a dumb neutrality in the Spanish Civil War. And again, this was a product of this strong hatred of World War I and the deep anti-war sentiment, which normally would be a positive sentiment. We wish we had more of that in the United States today. But in the 1930s this was a chance to stop Hitler, and the U.S. maintained its neutrality throughout the Spanish Civil War. The only nation that was really supporting the Spanish Republic was the Soviet Union.

PAUL JAY: And that was–the Spanish Republic was the elected government, overthrown by the fascist Franco backed by Hitler. And it was–in fact Hitler, uses the Spanish Civil War as a way to show off his air force, and his new military ability, and test some of his weapons. I mean, an obvious place to intervene if they actually wanted to stop fascism in Europe.

PETER KUZNICK: Well, and Roosevelt looked back on it and said we were going to rue the day when we didn’t intervene to stop Hitler when we had the chance.

There are a number of times when we could have stopped Hitler. But number one, people didn’t want to go to war. Number two, they downplayed the threat that Hitler represented, even though Hitler lays this out explicitly. In Mein Kampf he talks about taking over the Soviet Union. He talks about populating the Ukraine. He really lays out his plans very, very clearly, but people didn’t want to take it seriously. And then we pay the price for that. So sometimes it is necessary to fight. And we do have to be vigilant. But what complicates it, of course, is the post-war history, where the Cold War was, as we’ve talked about, extraordinarily dangerous and unnecessary and avoidable. And the U.S. interventions repeatedly, militarily, were not in the cause of freedom and stopping fascism, but were more often in the cause of spreading U.S. foreign policy goals and interests and intervening repeatedly on the wrong side in support of the oppressors, support of the militarists. We can through that history. We have before.

PAUL JAY: My understanding is the Soviet Union had been asking for the British and the Americans and Canadians to join a united front or a broad front of alliance against Hitler as far back as 1939. And once the Germans did start directly engaging, fighting against the Soviet Union, and began the invasion, Stalin kept asking over and over again for a second front to be opened in the West. And there wasn’t much interest in it up until the defeat of the Germans at Stalingrad.

PETER KUZNICK: Yeah. Well, in fact, it goes back long before 1939, when the Soviets adopted the popular front strategy in 1935. That was an attempt to reach out to the liberal progressive forces in the West for an antifascist alliance to stop Hitler in the mid-1930s. The Soviets saw what was coming, and they interpreted the West’s refusal to ally against Hitler as a sign that the West was hoping that Hitler would move East, as he promised, against the Soviet Union and destroy communism.

On the British side, Churchill says back after the Bolshevik Revolution that he wants to strangle Bolshevism in the cradle. You have to remember that the West sent troops into the Soviet Union in 1918 and 1919, and this was partly an effort to defeat the Russian Revolution. We’ve got the prolonged Russian Civil War as a response to that. And then the U.S. also sent more than 10,000 troops into Russia in 1918 and 1919. So this goes way back. The Brits, the Japanese, the French, they all had troops in there right after the Russian Revolution. They saw Bolshevism as a threat. And clearly the Bolsheviks were not playing by the rules. When the Bolsheviks released the diplomatic papers showing the Sykes-Picot treaty and showing that the British and the French and the Russians had divided up the world after World War I, that World War I was really a war to make the world safe for colonialism, to redivide the world’s colonies, not a war to make the world safe for democracy, it had exposed the lie at the source of American involvement in World War I.

Woodrow Wilson gets us involved because he wants to have a hand in shaping the post-war world. And he says so explicitly. He says otherwise we’ll be forced to sit outside the door and try to shout through a crack under the door. He says we want to be involved with shaping the world. And the world that the British and the French shape after World War I is not a world opposed to colonies, is not a world of self-determination, not a world of freedom, not a world of democracy. It’s a world of colonialism and repression, which is another reason why the Americans did not want to get involved in Europe. They saw the Europeans as corrupt, and Roosevelt says this explicitly in the 1930s and 1940s. He talks about British colonies in Gambia. Talks about the French colonies in Indochina. Talks about the British in India. And he says that this kind of repression cannot be tolerated after World War II. Unfortunately, Roosevelt dies and Truman does allow the British and the French to re-establish their colonial domains after World War II.

PAUL JAY: In the next segment of our interview we’re going to talk more about D-Day and whether it was the decisive battle that broke the back of German fascism, German militarism. So please join us for that on The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/d-day-how-the-us-supported-hitlers-rise-to-power
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 09, 2019, 06:32:18 pm
Agelbert NOTE: This man describes the only correct attitude of a Christian towards war. As you can imagine, this attitude is considered "unpatriotic" by 100% of the pseudo-Christians in the USA. 

Christianity and War

Pastor Robert W. Reed | War Series

Victory Baptist Church

📢 PODCAST: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac) (https://www.sermonaudio.com/saplayer/playpopup.asp?SID=72172054102)
Title: False Flag or Provocation? U.S. 😈 Quickly Blames Iran for Attacks on Ships
Post by: AGelbert on June 13, 2019, 10:06:34 pm
Agelbert NOTE: For news and analysis of Oil Tanker (False Flag) attack and Pompeo evidence free accusation(s), begin at 17:17 mark.

TruNews

Today on TRUNEWS we discuss the mysterious attack on two oil tankers near the Strait of Hormuz, and detail how Secretary Pompeo’s blanket assignment of blame to Iran has set the stage for further provocations to be used to start Israel’s war. Rick Wiles, Edward Szall, Doc Burkhart, Kerry Kinsey. Airdate June 13, 2019.


False Flag or Provocation? U.S. 😈 Quickly Blames Iran for Attacks on Ships
11,711 views

https://youtu.be/kyw83nLbNNQ

https://www.trunews.com/prayer

Agelbert ADDED NOTE: What an amazing coincidence that this "incident" enabled the price of oil to jump 4% even as a historic glut was tanking prices and profits for the darling of the 🦍 M.I.C., the Hydrocarbon 🦕🦖 Hellspawn...

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-010519192158-2201430.jpeg&hash=e912e1f5bdc041c35e217478b14ba3f7960e2037)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on June 14, 2019, 07:06:20 am
Remember the Maine. That's my first response. then I found Jim Wright wrote this:
http://www.stonekettle.com/2019/06/remember-maine.html

Remember The Maine



"In spite of all its horror, we must regard the sinking of the Lusitania as an event most important and favourable to the Allies. The poor babies who perished in the ocean attack struck a blow at German power more deadly than could have been achieved by the sacrifice of 100,000 men."
-- Winston Churchill, commenting on the “unprovoked” attack on the luxury liner RMS Lusitania, torpedoed by German U-boat U-20 on May 7, 1915. 1,200 people died in the icy waters off the coast of Ireland. The attack caused international outcry and was one of the factors that led to US involvement in WWI and was used to stoke anti-German sentiment in the United Kingdom.

It was later revealed Lusitania regularly engaged in the transport of thousands of tons munitions and war materiel using civilian passenger service as camouflage, a fact that had been deliberately kept from the British public and Lusitania’s passengers.

Trump on Twitter quoting US Secretary of State Pompeo, “It is the assessment of the U.S. government that Iran is responsible for today's attacks in the Gulf of Oman...."

The government.

It is the assessment of the US government.

Not the US intelligence community, the US government.

You want to pay attention to the weasel words.

[Edit: Moments ago, Pompeo blamed Iran for the attacks, “citing evidence from US intelligence” instead of just saying “US government. He did not, however, present any of this alleged evidence.]

Two tankers were attacked this morning in the Gulf of Oman near the mouth of the Straits of Hormuz.

Japan's Trade Ministry said the two vessels were carrying "Japan-related” cargo.

Four tankers were attacked last month in the same region.

Two more today and it’s starting to look like a trend.

Naturally prices surged on international markets as investors panicked at this sudden threat to the oil supply.

US officials are – predictably – blaming Iran for the attacks.

The general consensus in the press and world opinion is that Iran must be behind these attacks.

Must be.

There’s no evidence yet, at least none that any nation is willing to make public. No one actually witnessed Iran carrying out these attacks. It’s the assessment of our government, but not of the professionals – at least, not yet.

Still, perhaps conveniently, there really isn’t another obvious candidate.

But, as a retired US Navy Intelligence officer who spent significant time in that part of the world, I've got to say this assumption doesn't make a hell of a lot of sense. Not to me anyway.

Right now, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is in Tehran.

Japan’s leader is meeting with Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in an attempt to rekindle nuclear disarmament talks – something the Trump administration is adamantly opposed to. And Trump himself said so on Twitter again this morning.

And suddenly there are these attacks on tankers ...

...carrying Japanese cargo?

That's damned coincidental, if it is indeed a coincidence.

But if it's Iran, as our leaders say it must be, and it's not a coincidence, then what's the message?

Japan isn't threatened by Iran. 

Iran isn’t threatened by Japan.

Japan is currently in Iran attempting to negotiate a future equitable to Iran and Iran blows up cargo destined for Japan?

I repeat, what's the message here? Don’t try to negotiate with Iran? Is that the message? Because that message seems like it would be a lot more likely to come from somebody other than Iran.

Somebody who doesn’t want Japan and Iran talking.

Somebody who doesn’t want Iran talking to anybody.

Unless, you know, it is just a damned odd coincidence.

And maybe it is. How do you know?

How do you know?

Perhaps start with your intelligence assets, the professionals who spend their entire lives looking at this problem, instead of some political hack running the State Department who tells you only what you want to hear.

And the first thing you have to ask as an intelligence analysts is: Who benefits from these attacks?

Start there. Don’t start with the assumption Iran is behind the attacks and then reverse engineer the data and the politics to make it so. That’s how we ended up invading Iraq for 9-11. I know, because I was there.

Who benefits from these attacks?

And that's the question you don't see asked.

You see a lot of blame tossed around this morning. A lot of speculation. But the press doesn’t ask "who benefits?"

This morning, as we edge closer and closer to war, President Trump is furiously tweeting about impeachment and how somebody spied on his campaign and how he’s under no obligation to report when foreign intelligence agents hand him dirt on his opponents and something about the “Prince of Whales,” but you don’t see him asking: “who benefits?”

And you’re not seeing it from any of our other so-called leaders either.

We all just assume Iran benefits. But do they? And can you prove it?

Who benefits from attacking oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman?

Start here: The attackers didn't get the cargo.

And that’s significant.

In fact, at this point, we're not even sure how the ships were attacked. Mine? Missile? Torpedo? Nobody knows, again at least not that they’re saying. But whoever it was and however they did it, they weren’t interested in the cargo. I have some very direct experience in this area, in this gulf, on ships like this, with piracy and oil and you don’t blow holes in a tanker or light it on fire if you’re after the oil.

The attackers didn't get the cargo and made no attempt to do so.

So piracy isn't the motivation.

Or is it?

See, there's more than one form of piracy and this is where I remind you of that surge in oil prices this morning.

What am I saying? Wall Street is behind the attacks? Exxon stock holders? Investors? OPEC? Some sort of James Bondesque plot from the Pierce Brosnan era?

Well … you know, stranger things have happened. Wars have been started for profit more often than we’d like to admit. It is a hell of a lot of money. One hell of a lot of power.

To hell with Spain! Remember the Maine!
-- Rallying cry of Americans who wanted war with Spain following that nation’s attack on USS Maine in Havana harbor, February 15, 1898.

Many years later, following the Spanish American War, it was revealed USS Maine had been destroyed by a coal bunker explosion. An accident.

But I'd rate the probability of that scenario as, well, probably unlikely – but not entirely impossible.

It would be easier to raise oil prices via a variety of safer means, depending on your definition of "safe." Particularly when these attacks are likely to spark a military response.

Very likely, a military response from the US -- despite the fact that these are not our ships, nor our cargo, nor our people, nor our sovereign territory.

And that’s the thing, right there. Isn’t it?

Who wants war between the US and Iran?

Besides us, I mean?

Who wants that war? Who benefits from war between the US and Iran?

Well, a lot of people actually. A lot of nations. A lot of entrenched political and monied power structures.

Now, we're certainly veering dangerously towards conspiracy theory territory here, but the thing is that whoever is behind this, well, they must want war.

They must.

Whoever is behind these attacks, be it a nation or some other agency, they must want war.

Or they are the single most naïve terrorists ever born.

Because war is what you're going to get when you threaten the oil supply.

And the United States is going to be leading the charge. That’s a given, for many reasons beyond just oil.

So, if it is Iran, is that what they’re trying to provoke? War. With America?

Why?

Does Iran really want war with the US?

Of course, the kneejerk jingoistic American answer is: YES!

But, do they? Really?

How does Iran benefit from that war?

The odds are that the US will win – depending on how you define the terms. Maybe not quickly, maybe not easily, maybe at great cost – perhaps even fatal cost -- but eventually the US along with the rest of the world will destroy Iran if pushed into war, because the world can’t afford to have the Straits of Hormuz closed for very long. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, the UAE, those nations cannot allow Iran to close the Straits for long. The nations who depend on the oil which flows via tanker through those straits, they can’t allow those straits to be closed at all.

And that’s what will happen when the US goes to war with Iran.

I’ve been there. I’ve been on the bridge of US cruisers, the point ship of a fleet transiting that narrow strait. I’ve looked at the war plans, hell, I helped write them. It doesn’t have to be complete. It doesn’t have to be total. Such a blockade might not keep warships from fighting their way through – unless somebody gets lucky and sinks an American nuclear aircraft carrier in the channel. But you can’t sail oil tankers through a war zone. Not through that channel under fire.

It doesn’t matter if anybody else can get through, if you can’t sail tankers through the Straits of Hormuz, then you’re screwed.

And there isn’t much anybody could do to stop that once war is joined, short of utter destruction of Iran – perhaps even nuclear destruction. 

Iran knows this.

Their leaders are religious fanatics, but they are not stupid. And they understand war and power just fine. So why would they provoke the US into attacking?

What do they stand to gain?

Now, of course, this is where things get difficult, because we are talking about religious fanatics. Maybe they do want the US to attack. Maybe they think their God will give them victory. Or maybe they’re gambling that the attack will be limited. Maybe they think they they can parley such a strike into sympathy, drive a wedge between the US and its allies, especially if they can play up America’s penchant for unprovoked war ala Iraq.

That would be a hell of a risky plan.

Then again, stranger, riskier, and far more ridiculous plans by fanatics have pushed nations into war.

But you have to ask yourself, why then attack tankers? Why attack these tankers? Why not attack warships? If war is what you want. Iran attacking these tankers just doesn’t make much sense even if they did want war. And the truth of the matter is that no matter who “wins,” war with the US will be very, very bad for Iran. And it’s damned unlikely they would risk any such open conflict, especially since these very same Iranian leaders have repeatedly demonstrated their willingness to sit down at a negotiating table and talk, even sign agreements with the United States and her allies.

Agreements the US walked out on, not Iran.

Of all the nations that might want war between the US and Iran, Iran is the least likely candidate.

And so, we come back ‘round to it.

Back around to the questions we should be asking.

To the questions that the press should be asking.

To the questions our our leaders should be loudly asking right now.

To the questions our intelligence community should be working to answer in detail.

Who benefits?

Who benefits from attacks on these particular targets?

Who has the capability to carry out these attacks. Who has the ability to carry out an attack on oil tankers, underway at sea, in one of the most heavily trafficked sea lanes and thus one of the most heavily surveilled areas in the world, on ships that are specifically on the lookout for such an attack.

Who can carry out that attack and do so in such a manner that the methodology and origin are not immediately apparent?

Who has that capability?

Not only has that capability, but also believes they will directly benefit from a war between Iran and the rest of the world.

Has the capability, is willing to use it, wants a war, and will benefit from the results even if later reveled -- starting with a massive increase in the price of oil.

Now, you tell me: who is that?

My fellow Americans, as President and Commander in Chief, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply…
-- President Lyndon Johnson, August 4, 1964, addressing the nation following two attacks by North Vietnamese gunboats on the American warship USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.

Whereas these attackers are part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in North Vietnam has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defense of their freedom…
-- Tonkin Gulf Resolution, August 7, 1964, the US resolution which, as a result of the North Vietnamese attacks on USS Maddox, led directly to the Vietnam War.

In 2005, records from the Maddox Incident were declassified, revealing that in the first “attack” on USS Maddox, the US warship was in fact the aggressor and fired on North Vietnamese vessels first.

The second “attack” never actually happened at all.


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 14, 2019, 03:10:58 pm
Remember the Maine. That's my first response. then I found Jim Wright wrote this:
http://www.stonekettle.com/2019/06/remember-maine.html

Remember The Maine

SNIPPET:

Back around to the questions we should be asking.
To the questions that the press should be asking.
To the questions our our leaders should be loudly asking right now.
To the questions our intelligence community should be working to answer in detail.

AGELBERT: I lined out those questions above because they ASS-U-ME some integrity in our leaders, press and government. That is like expecting Sara Sanders to be "truth based".

Who benefits?
AGELBERT:THE M.I.C. HYDROCARBON HELLSPAWN WAR PROFITEERING MURDER AND MAYHEM BUSINESS MODEL, PERIOD, FULL STOP. The other questions, which the media will never address :-X (except in Orwellian fashion in order to blame the victim), are all applicable derivatives of CUI BONO.
Who benefits from attacks on these particular targets?
Who has the capability to carry out these attacks. Who has the ability to carry out an attack on oil tankers, underway at sea, in one of the most heavily trafficked sea lanes and thus one of the most heavily surveilled areas in the world, on ships that are specifically on the lookout for such an attack.
Who can carry out that attack and do so in such a manner that the methodology and origin are not immediately apparent?
Who has that capability?
Not only has that capability, but also believes they will directly benefit from a war between Iran and the rest of the world.
Has the capability, is willing to use it, wants a war, and will benefit from the results even if later reveled -- starting with a massive increase in the price of oil.

Now, you tell me: who (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201645-1486464.jpeg&hash=bfa44b2ee2b1d6d1ea71a024b1bd6e9cf1328326) is that?

My fellow Americans, as President and Commander in Chief, it is my duty to the American people to report that renewed hostile actions against United States ships on the high seas in the Gulf of Tonkin have today required me to order the military forces of the United States to take action in reply -- President Lyndon Johnson, August 4, 1964, addressing the nation following two attacks by North Vietnamese gunboats on the American warship USS Maddox in the Gulf of Tonkin.
Whereas these attackers are part of a deliberate and systematic campaign of aggression that the Communist regime in North Vietnam has been waging against its neighbors and the nations joined with them in the collective defense of their freedom -- Tonkin Gulf Resolution, August 7, 1964, the US resolution which, as a result of the North Vietnamese attacks on USS Maddox, led directly to the Vietnam War.

In 2005, records from the Maddox Incident were declassified, revealing that in the first attack on USS Maddox, the US warship was in fact the aggressor and fired on North Vietnamese vessels first.
The second attack never actually happened at all.

Yep.

This video covers a lot of False Flag, ethics free 'fun and games' territory:
https://youtu.be/Yw0-ASR4sr8

The only analysis that I would add, that gives some hope to people of good will, is the fact that ever since the 2003 Bush (and his wrecking crew) War Crime Atrocity against Iraq, an atrocity perpetrated with lies so transparent that literally millions of people tried, but failed, to stop said war for oil to take place, the United States of America LOST the moral high ground (that our propaganda machine had successfully spoon fed to most of the us for over a century). From 2003 to the present, despite undending disingenious efforts by the media water carriers for the M.I.C. to recover this lost moral high ground, these evil bastards have FAILED.

Trump (and Israel) will NEVER convince the American public that a war with Iran is "justified".

Nevertheless, they may go to great lengths (e.g. 9/11 style false flag massive attack on Israel) to get it done while we peace loving folks are paralyzed by cognitive dissonance.

Let us picture that scenario:

War Day minus one month: Israel screams that thei Iranians want to wipe them out. The NYT sides with Israel. The U.S. is portrayed in the media as rushing to the defense of our ally, "beleaguered" Israel, the "only Democracy" in the Midddle East. Trump praises the NYT for "finally" telling the "truth".
 
War Day minus three weeks: Iran, knowing what that alligator tears propaganda circus pitch is really all about, remains silent but quickly prepares its military for all out war. They surreptitiously appeal to Russia and China to create an "incident" somewhere else on the planet to unnerve/distract Trump's M.I.C. wrecking crew (multiple front wars are the nightmare of all generals).

War Day minus two weeks: The U.S. sinks one of its own battleships in the Gulf of Oman with a cruise missle and blames Iran. The media demands an attack on Iran. Russia and/or China put into operation plans to stop the war.

War Day minus one week: Chinese soldiers capture a U.S. battleship in Hong Kong harbor, claiming the ship's crew is illegally "interfering" with Chinese politics in Hong Kong. Two American crewmembers are killed in a brief firefight. The rest are held for "questioning". Video of Chinese on U.S. Battleship goes viral. Chinese authorities state that crew and battleship will be returned to U.S. custody when the U.S. apologizes for its interference and stops the warmongering in the Middle East. Pentagon quietly screams at Trump that logistics cannot handle the Chinese and Iran thing simultaneously. Trump turns purple, refuses to change course, but says nothing publicly.

War Day minus 4 days week: Russian ship "accidentally" rams a U.S. aircraft carrier near Japan. Russia publicly apologizes but privately warns Trump that war with Iran is unacceptable. Pentagon notifies Trump that several Russian S-400 missile batteries have been moved to Iran in the last month AND that Russian nuclear forces went on alert this week. Trump gets the runs but refuses to change course, and says nothing publicly.

War Day: Hundreds of cruise missles are fired at Iran from several U.S. war ships, causing thousands of casualties. Iranian missles sink all those ships the same day, killing most crewmembers. Trump goes into hiding. Israel screams bloody murder. Russia and China go to full nuclear alert. WHY? Because the red line for them is Iran. If Iran goes down, they are next on the MIC's "to do" list.

War Day +2 days: Trump authorizes tactical nuclear weapons use against Iran. At least 12 tactical (about 20% of Hiroshima size) nukes are exploded on Iranian cities, NOT troops or harbors (This is for the MIC purpose of bringing a quick surrender). Iran does not surrender and screams that these attacks are heinous War Crimes.

War Day +3 days: Russian bombers attack remaining U.S. assets near Iran, using tactical nuclear weapons. U.S. fleet destroyed.

War Day +4 days: Trump dies of an (accidentally on purpose) heart attack and Pence, after being read the riot act by those who still have a brain in the Pentagon, AND a brief conversation on the hotline with Putin AND another one with XI, declares an immediate end to hostilities. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132400-16842321.gif&hash=e2590f92501c5dd6149626bb0ab180ce9e1d5bd3)

OR

War Day +4 days: Trump and his WRECKING CREW attack the Russian bombers with our fighters and our bombers drop a tactical nuke on a small Russian city.

War Day +5 days: Full scale nuclear war breaks out. You and I and every single person we know and love are all killed. Have a nice day.
(https://dingo.care2.com/c2p/GlobalZero/GZ500x600.png)

  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b)
Title: Russia warns against ‘hasty conclusions’ about tanker incidents in Sea of Oman
Post by: AGelbert on June 14, 2019, 04:44:46 pm
Fri Jun 14, 2019 05:01PM [Updated: Fri Jun 14, 2019 06:05PM

Russia warns against ‘hasty conclusions’ about tanker incidents in Sea of Oman

Russia has warned against jumping to conclusions about a Thursday incident involving two oil tankers in the Sea of Oman, which the United States has claimed were attacks carried out by Iran.

“We consider it necessary to refrain from hasty conclusions,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Friday.

Two large tankers were hit by explosions in the Sea of Oman — also called the Gulf of Oman — on Thursday. The tankers were identified as the Marshal Islands-flagged Front Altair and the Panama-flagged Japanese-owned Kokuka Courageous.

Shortly after the two vessels sent out distress signals, an Iranian rescue ship rushed to their help and picked up all of the crew.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo quickly blamed Iran. President Donald Trump did the same on Friday. They claimed the ships hit a mine planted by Iran. This is while the Japanese operator of one of the tankers said it had been hit by “a flying object,” disputing the US account at least partially.

The Russian Foreign Ministry called for a thorough international investigation.

“We are concerned by tensions in the Gulf of Oman,” it said, urging all parties to show restraint.

Iran 👍 has strongly rejected the US allegation, calling the incident “suspicious.” 

Meanwhile, Moscow thanked Iran for rescuing the 11 Russian crew members from one of the tankers.

https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/06/14/598517/Russia-Oman-tankers-no-hasty-conclusions

Agelbert NOTE: Iran is telling the truth. The U.S. version of events is a bold faced LIE, PERIOD. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838) NOW you know what those 🦍 1500 troops Trump sent a few weeks ago, to the Middle East to do "good things", are 😈 💥 DOING.

SNIPPET:

Quote
In a series of tweets on Friday, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said the US allegations against Iran over the attacks on oil tankers in the Sea of Oman were part of "sabotage diplomacy" adopted by the "B Team," which he uses to refer to US National Security Adviser John Bolton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, and Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan.

full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

Iran calls on US, allies to stop ‘false flag ops’ in Middle East (https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/06/13/598461/iran-sea-of-oman-oil-tankers-us)
Title: President Xi: China to boost ties with Iran no matter what
Post by: AGelbert on June 14, 2019, 05:10:55 pm
Agelbert NOTE: It looks like China, like Russia, is already moving to try to get the U.S. to cancel its planned war crime against Iran. Good.

 Fri Jun 14, 2019

(https://cdn.presstv.com/photo/20190614/e262e784-fd66-41d6-8fc3-41f53839640f.jpg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
President Xi: China to boost ties with Iran no matter what (https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/06/14/598482/Iran-China-SCO-Rouhani-Xi-Bishkek)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 14, 2019, 05:24:29 pm
Jun 14, 2019

Trump  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16) says wants Iran ‘back at the table’ after tanker attacks (https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2019/06/14/598511/Trump-says-wants-Iran-back-at-the-table-after-tanker-attacks)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-111214174727.png&hash=a0ea65f844542e4709bd444bd2f70496c434c56b)

Agellbert NOTE: What Trump wants is plausible deniability when the really big false flag attack comes. This old trick of appearing friendly with a nation right before you stab said nation in the back is as old as NAZI Germany with Russia and pre-Pearl Harbor Japan with the USA. Iran 👍 is not falling for it. Don't YOU fall for it!
Title: Seven Reasons To Be Highly Skeptical Of The Gulf Of Oman Incident
Post by: AGelbert on June 14, 2019, 06:04:33 pm
Fri, 06/14/2019

Seven Reasons To Be Highly Skeptical Of The Gulf Of Oman Incident

Authored by Caitlin Johnstone via Medium.com,

In a move that surprised exactly zero people, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has wasted no time scrambling to blame Iran for damage done to two sea vessels in the Gulf of Oman on Thursday, citing exactly zero evidence.

SNIPPET:

4. Using false flags to start a war with Iran is already an established idea in the DC swamp.
Back in 2012 at a forum for the Washington Institute Of Near East Policy think tank, the group’s Director of Research Patrick Clawson openly talked about the possibility of using a false flag to provoke a war with Iran, citing the various ways the US has done exactly that with its previous wars.

“I frankly think that crisis initiation is really tough, and it’s very hard for me to see how the United States president can get us to war with Iran,” Clawson began.
https://youtu.be/PfoaLbbAix0

5. The US State Department has already been running psyops to manipulate the public Iran narrative.
(https://78.media.tumblr.com/f763599d30eaeb44b0c2eee92a26a8c5/tumblr_palizer1YQ1tsf68ao1_400.gif) State Department officials admitted to Congressional staff at a closed-door meeting on Monday that a $1.5 million troll 😈 farm had gone “beyond the scope (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718202127.gif&hash=acc63221521ebaf3f238088fd92d1ae3a08b6e48) of its 😉 mandate”  by aggressively smearing American critics of the Trump administration’s (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) Iran policy as propagandists for the Iranian government, according to a new report from The Independent. That “mandate” had reportedly consisted of “countering propaganda from Iran”, also known as conducting anti-Iran propaganda.

“Critics in Washington have gone further, saying that the programme resembled the type of troll farms used by autocratic regimes abroad,” says The Independent.

One woman 👹 behind the harassment campaign, a longtime Iranian-American activist, has received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the State Department over the years to promote ‘freedom of expression and free access to information,’ 😉😈” the report reads.

full article with several short videos irrefutably exposing "how it 👹 works" in the M.I.C.: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-14/seven-reasons-be-highly-skeptical-gulf-oman-incident
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 15, 2019, 04:12:37 pm
Where Are the Skeptics as the Drums Roll for War with Iran?

June 14, 2019

Vijay Prashad challenges the media reality that Iran attacked the oil tankers, calling for a real investigation to uncover the truth

https://youtu.be/wZpR6x_-Y4w

Story Transcript

MIKE POMPEO: It is the assessment of the United States Government that the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for the attacks that occurred in the Gulf of Oman today. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-080419191019.png&hash=a449294ee6fe2dfdea44c1c501f4439b9ac69c26) This is only the latest in a series of attacks instigated by the Islamic Republic of Iran and its surrogates against American and allied interests, and they should be understood in the context of 40 years of unprovoked aggression against freedom-loving nations. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191017140758.jpeg&hash=8c0a35a928dcda3c1a8714ab03f4924a1a775851)


DONALD TRUMP: Iran did do it. And you know they did it because you saw the boat. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-200419205434.png&hash=f935da2cb5d2746b1d817ec9a4feb3a04f3f8075)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817122018.gif&hash=74d86c1f35e2f61ea38c9bfa392f84a92631b96e) I guess one of the mines didn’t explode and it’s probably got essentially Iran written all over it.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-030815183114.gif&hash=2bf1553e87e8605311feb874231953d5fb88ee9c)

MARC STEINER: Welcome to The Real News. I’m Marc Steiner. It’s great to have you all with us.

So what is reality here? Did Iran remove those mines? Are we being set up for another war? Did Iran plan this attack in the first place? Why has the media not talked at all about U.S. stopping Iran’s oil exports unilaterally? And after the lies being told the American people that got us to invade Iraq, don’t we have the right to be really skeptical?

Well, we are joined by Vijay Prashad, who is Director of Tricontinental. And Vijay, welcome back. Always good to have you here on The Real News.

VIJAY PRASHAD: Thanks a lot, Marc.

MARC STEINER: So let’s talk about this. And I think I said this a bit before went on the air together, which is those of us in the media–no matter what media you are in this country–and others in this country, don’t we have a right to be skeptical of all this, given what drove us to have a war with Iraq on news that was not real?

VIJAY PRASHAD: It’s not just a question of the right to be skeptical. When the subject is about war or the possibility of war, it’s more than a right to be skeptical. I think there’s a necessity to be skeptical. Nobody wants this war. Iran doesn’t want this war, China doesn’t want this war, Russia doesn’t want this war. In fact, on the day after these accusations were made in Bishkek, the Shanghai Cooperative Organization, which is an organization that includes Iran, India, Pakistan, China, Russia, Central Asian Republics, and so on met. And most of these countries came out quite forcefully, and these are all neighbors of Iran in one way or the other, these Eurasian countries. They came out and said that they don’t want a war. So in this situation, it’s very important to ask why is the United States–without any forensic investigation–why is the United States immediately jumping on these incidents with the Norwegian and Japanese bankers and saying this was done by Iran? Why is the United States trying to find a provocation for war?

I mean, at this point, the media must ask questions. It’s not a question of being skeptical of anything a government says or doesn’t say. Here, when there’s a possibility of a war in a region which is already being torn apart, which will be torn further apart, I think it’s a necessity to ask about the evidence, to ask questions about the nature of the evidence; where did this come from? I mean, Marc, I’m very skeptical, especially given the fact that the CIA in 2017 created a group called the Iran Mission Center, run by Michael D’Andrea, whose purpose is to produce the intelligence for the war. I don’t know where this video came from of a small boat next to an oil tanker, because that oil tanker’s captain said quite decisively that he saw, or his crew saw, flying projectiles come and strike the ship, and not mines. So we have conflicting reports of what has happened. Conflicting reports require an investigation, not a rush to judgment.

MARC STEINER: Let’s watch for a moment what you just said. This is Mr. Katada, who owns the boat that was allegedly attacked. And he has a very different view than does President Trump and the others.

YUTAKA KATADA: The crew is saying that it was hit by a flying object. They’re saying that something came flying. To put a bomb on the side of the boat is something we are not considering.

MARC STEINER: So if you look at the footage–and I think we need to understand what that footage is about. And I am not an expert on small boats, and as you said to me before, neither are you an expert on small boats and large ships and what this really is. This really calls for a different kind of investigation. And so, let me just play this one little clip here I think is really important and then we can talk about what should be the response and how you get that response. This was this morning on National Public Radio on Morning Edition, where they interviewed Admiral Fallon, who used to be a head of Tricom. This is what he had to say, being interviewed on Morning Edition this morning.

WILLIAM FALLON: I believe there’s little doubt that that’s what it is. The U.S. vessel in the vicinity, one of Astorias, saw numerous IRGC boats ram each of the tankers that was attacked. But I think the only question, I’ve seen some speculation that this may be some kind of an independent action. I doubt that sincerely. I think this was something that was premeditated and it’s an escalatory step in a road to I’m not sure where, but certainly not headed anywhere in the right direction.

MARC STEINER: So the admiral says, “I doubt that,” that it was premeditated. But this is an example of, I think, media across the United States at the moment, which is very clearly saying Iran did this, and backing up what the Trump administration has said. So what would be your response to the admiral, what would be your response to Morning Edition playing this piece the way they did?

VIJAY PRASHAD: Well, first I would ask them where this footage came from. That’s, to me, of interest. I mean, any forensic observer who looks at these things carefully, they’ll ask for the provenance of the footage. I’d like to talk to the captain and crew of the Japanese vessel and ask them what the Iranian port was doing alongside. The Iranians have said that they sent small boats there to rescue people from these vessels. That is, I think, uncontested. The Japanese and Norwegians were brought off these ships by the Iranians, and some say by Americans. So this could very well be a rescue vessel. We need to have more people talking. Right now, Mike Pompeo has come out there with a very large fist that he’s banged on the table, and that very large fist has made a lot of noise and it’s defining the conversation.

I think one needs to talk to the Japanese. We need to hear from the Norwegians. We need to hear from the crew. Many of them are from the Philippines, some of them are from Russia. We need to take the testimony of these people, get a broad understanding of what happened before we rush into the view that this was a premeditated Iranian action. There is no political reason, by the way, for Iran to have done something like this. There’s one side of the issue is to see what happened; the other side is to see, what are the political ramifications? In other words, what’s the motive? Very important question asked by investigators. Iran has no motive right now to attack two tankers which were taking oil to Japan.

And the reason Iran has no motivation for this attack is that while this attack happened–or whatever happened to these ships–Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was in Tehran. This is the first visit of a Japanese prime minister to Tehran in 41 years. He came there to talk about trying to open the diplomatic page again, which the Trump administration has tried to close. Earlier this year, the Foreign Minister of Iran, Mr. Zarif, went to Tokyo, met Mr. Shinzo Abe in his home, in his private residence. When Shinzo Abe walked out of that meeting, he said that the nuclear deal is a deal of great stability for West Asia. So Iran has no motivation to scuttle the talks with the Japanese, no motivation to basically annoy the Japanese, anger the Japanese. So there’s no motivation. It’s very unclear if there’s any hard evidence that Iran did this.

These are the kinds of questions that should have been asked of Mike Pompeo. But it’s important, Marc, that Mr. Pompeo did his so-called press conference, which was essentially just a statement. And then he walked out. He didn’t take any questions. He didn’t even bother to allow the basic democratic protocols to be met. But the other media should be asking these questions. First, what happened, and secondly, who has a motive to do this? I’m not alleging anything. I’m simply saying that at this time, it is totally illogical for Iran to have conducted any kind of action like this against two oil tankers which were on their way to Japan.

MARC STEINER: Juan Cole this morning was Tweeting and writing in an article that–he even speculated–could it be the Houthis who swept up mines and somehow got them to the other Gulf. So this is full of speculation, we don’t know. The question is, even internally in Iran, there are differences between the Revolutionary Guard, people in the government. There could be something happening inside internally in Iran. It could be something totally separate. Clearly something happened, but I don’t think we have any clear evidence at this point about what exactly happened, and that’s the real issue here, and who did this and why.

VIJAY PRASHAD: This is exactly correct. I’m not willing to speculate and say it may have been x or may have been y, because that’s a fool’s errand. We can say it’s some hardliners in Iran, or it’s the Houthis, or it’s the Americans who are doing it themselves. These are things that are out there. The great value of the Internet is it’s a place of many, many theories. But the issue here is not for that. It’s not for me to say who did it. It’s for me to question a government’s absolute certainty in the absence of providing any evidence. That, for me, is the standard of journalism. I’m not prepared to go out there and speculate about who did it, but I question when a government says that they know precisely what has happened and have not provided evidence.

I’d like to say that at least when Secretary of State Colin Powell went before the United Nations and openly lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, he lied and provided evidence based on lies. In other words, the forceful interrogations produced some material which was totally erroneous, but at least they provided false evidence. In this case, they haven’t bothered to provide any evidence at all. There’s a decline in standards, I must say, in the U.S. State Department.

MARC STEINER: Let me play this one clip of Donald Trump talking about the Strait of Hormuz and the Gulf, and what he said may be happening here, as we conclude this conversation and pick up on this.

AINSLEY EARHARDT: The Strait of Hormuz is a critical shipping lane. And we’re watching it carefully. If they try to close that, is the United States obligated to try to keep it open?

DONALD TRUMP: Well, they’re not going to be closing it. It’s not going to be–if it closes, it’s not going to be closed for long. And they know it. And they’ve been told in very strong terms. And we want to get them back to the table if they want to go back. I’m ready when they are. But whenever they’re ready, it’s OK. In the meantime, I’m in no rush. I’m in no rush.

MARC STEINER: And he clearly said more than once he’s in no rush to negotiate with Iran. I’d like to comment on that as we conclude. But also, one of the things that’s been missing, it seems to me, from all of the reporting that I’ve been watching and reading, is that nobody has talked about the unilateral decision of the United States to stop Iran from being able to export its oil. That itself some people could see as an act of war, and not going through the Security Council or any other international body. So there’s a complexity between what we just heard Trump say and a political reality on the ground.

VIJAY PRASHAD: One of the great values of President Donald Trump of the United States is that he says all kinds of things. And of course, he’s lying, because it’s his administration, policy defined by his National Security Advisor John Bolton, by his Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, it’s his administration that not only unilaterally walked away from the table–that is to say, the five party nuclear agreement, not only did he unilaterally basically rip that up, but he also unilaterally placed sanctions, which you’re quite correct, could be interpreted as an act of war. And then he unilaterally, on May 2, had the waivers given to countries like South Korea, Japan, India, Turkey, and so on. He ripped those up. This was unilateral American decisions. And it’s put the Iranians in such a position, Marc–and this is where it gets very disturbing. The Iranians, in order to basically hold their pride intact, have said that they are unwilling to come back to the table if the Americans are going to drag them over the coals, which means Trump’s position is pushing the Iranians away from the diplomatic option.

And it’s this reason why I feel the intervention of Shinzo Abe of Japan has been so crucial, because Mr. Abe’s visit to Iran was essentially to convince the Iranians not to have a hard position against diplomacy, which they’ve been pushed into the corner into. And also it shows that it’s had an impact. Because at the Shanghai Cooperative Organization meeting in Bishkek, the Iranians, led by Hassan Rouhani, the president of Iran, came to this meeting of the FCO and opened a dialogue with the Russians, Chinese, Indians, and others, and said they are very open to continuing dialogue. If Mr. Trump is serious and not lying on Fox and Friends, then he should approach the Iranians again and say, “Look, I’m afraid we do need to come back to the table and I made a mistake months earlier.”

MARC STEINER: Well, we’ve been talking about Vijay Prashad, Director of Tricontinental. And here at The Real News, we’re going to stay on top of this. This is a very critical story for the future of our country, for Iran, for the planet, war and peace, and we will stay on top of this and keep you abreast of all that’s going on with the analysis from Vijay and others. And Vijay Prashad, thank you so much for joining us here on The Real News today. I deeply appreciate your time.

VIJAY PRASHAD: Thanks a lot, Marc.

MARC STEINER: And I’m Marc Steiner here for The Real News Network. Thank you all for joining us. We’ll stay on top of this. Take care.

https://therealnews.com/stories/where-are-the-skeptics-as-the-drums-roll-for-war-with-iran

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 15, 2019, 05:49:32 pm
🐍 Bolton  and 🦖Pompeo  Are Trying to Start Another Forever(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-070814193155.png&hash=144ce9330e49ee84060db8753a8db69c39a14913)War

BY Matt Korda, Truthout

PUBLISHED June 15, 2019

National Security Advisor John Bolton and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are manufacturing a crisis in order to catapult the United States into an explosive conflict with Iran. This shouldn't be remotely surprising, given their track records of supporting regime change and opposing the Iran nuclear deal. Sustained public, media and congressional pressure might prompt Trump to realize that enabling his top two foreign policy appointees is simply more trouble for him than it's worth.

Read the Article (https://truthout.org/articles/bolton-and-pompeo-are-trying-to-start-another-forever-war/)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 17, 2019, 12:31:03 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-260718150100.jpeg&hash=00f25fb4f05b52767255a460eb1efa3742d5c738)

Will A False-Flag Iran War Cause A Financial Crisis?

Mon, 06/17/2019 - 09:14

Authored by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,

Just a couple of weeks ago the financial world’s biggest worry was the plunging price of oil. Supply was up, stockpiles were building and speculation was pointing towards $40 a barrel, a price at which the fracking/shale oil “miracle” would evaporate. A trillion dollars of related junk debt would default, taking a big part of the leveraged speculating community along for the ride.

Then it all changed. Someone attacked some ships and oil infrastructure in the Middle East, the US and Saudi Arabia accused Iran, and now the fear is that a major regional war will interrupt the flow of oil, sending its price way up and causing a financial crisis at least as severe as a shale oil debt collapse.

This is a legitimate concern, for two reasons.

First, oil shocks have happened in the past, most notably during the Arab-Israeli war of the 1970s. So we know what they do, and it isn’t pretty. Gas prices jump, workers can’t afford their commute, the economy slows dramatically and pretty much everyone other than domestic 🦕🦖 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) energy companies (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201645-1486464.jpeg&hash=bfa44b2ee2b1d6d1ea71a024b1bd6e9cf1328326) suffers badly.

Second and potentially more serious, the pretext for this war is so blatantly false that it risks destroying what little credibility the US government has left. Think about it: With the US doing everything it can to delegitimize and destabilize Iran while positioning assets for an invasion, Iran’s leaders … start attacking oil tankers in its offshore waters.

Does that make sense? Of course not. Much more likely is that this is yet another false flag – that is, an incident faked to give a pretext for war – and a clumsy one at that.

For readers who aren’t clear on the false flag concept and its ubiquity in geopolitics, here are just a few of the dozens of documented examples: (https://newspunch.com/shocking-list-of-official-proven-false-flag-attacks/)

► Japanese troops blew up a train track in 1931, blamed it on China and used it to justify the invasion of Manchuria.

► After taking power, the Nazis burned down their own parliament building and blamed the communists. Later on, they faked attacks on German citizens and blamed the Poles, to justify the subsequent invasion of that country.

► In 1939 the Soviets shelled one of their own villages and blamed Finland, prior to invading.

► In 1954 Israeli terrorist cells operating in Egypt bombed U.S. diplomatic facilities, leaving behind evidence implicating Arabs.

► The CIA hired Iranians in the 1950s to pose as Communists and stage bombings in Iran in order to ignite a rebellion against the democratically-elected government. After the rebellion succeeded the US installed a hand-picked dictator.

► The US staged a naval engagement — the Gulf of Tonkin incident – and blamed the North Vietnamese, providing a pretext for entering the Vietnam War.

► The FBI used provocateurs in the 1950s through 1970s to carry out violent acts and falsely blame them on political activists.

► In 1984, Israel faked radio messages that linked Lybia to terrorism. The US bombed Libya immediately thereafter.

► Russian blew up apartment buildings in 1999 and falsely blamed it on Chechens, in order to justify an invasion of Chechnya

The list goes on seemly forever. But these examples are enough to make the twin points that 1) lots of countries employ false flags attacks, and 2) the US is especially fond of them.

There’s just one problem this time: Everyone is on to it. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3) Even the New York Times, which has never met a Mid East war it didn’t love, sees through the deception:

As Trump Accuses Iran, He Has One Problem: His Own Credibility

To President Trump, the question of culpability in the explosions that crippled two oil tankers in the Gulf of Oman is no question at all. “It’s probably got essentially Iran written all over it,” he declared on Friday.

The question is whether the writing is clear to everyone else. For any president, accusing another country of an act of war presents an enormous challenge to overcome skepticism at home and abroad. But for a president known for falsehoods and crisis-churning bombast, the test of credibility appears far more daunting.

For two and a half years in office, Mr. Trump has spun out so many misleading or untrue statements about himself, his enemies, his policies, his politics, his family, his personal story, his finances and his interactions with staff that even his own former communications director once said “he’s a liar” and many Americans long ago concluded that he cannot be trusted.

Fact-checking Mr. Trump is a full-time occupation in Washington, and in no other circumstance is faith in a president’s word as vital as in matters of war and peace. The public grew cynical about presidents and intelligence after George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq based on false accusations of weapons of mass destruction, and the doubt spilled over to Barack Obama when he accused Syria of gassing its own people. As Mr. Trump confronts Iran, he carries the burden of their history and his own.

“The problem is twofold for them,” said John E. McLaughlin, a deputy C.I.A. director during the Iraq war. “One is people will always rightly question intelligence because it’s not an exact science. But the most important problem for them is their own credibility and contradictions.”

The task is all the more formidable for Mr. Trump, who himself has assailed the reliability of America’s intelligence agencies and even the intelligence chiefs he appointed, suggesting they could not be believed when their conclusions have not fit his worldview.

All of that can raise questions when international tension flares up, like the explosion of the two oil tankers on Thursday, a provocation that fueled anxiety about the world’s most important oil shipping route and the prospect of escalation into military conflict. When Mr. Trump told Fox News on Friday that “Iran did do it,” he was asking his country to accept his word.

“Trump’s credibility is about as solid as a snake oil salesman,” said Jen Psaki, who was the White House communications director and top State Department spokeswoman under Mr. Obama. “That may work for selling his particular brand to his political base, but during serious times, it leaves him without a wealth of good will and trust from the public that what he is saying is true even on an issue as serious as Iran’s complicity in the tanker explosions.”

Combine these two problems – a Middle East war sending oil much higher, and a near-universal lack of belief in the rationale for that war – and the remaining faith in American competence and honesty might evaporate.

This takes us back to finance, specifically to a monetary system based on fiat currency which depends for its value on our collective trust in the people managing it.

The Fed will respond to an oil crisis by cutting interest rates back to – or below – zero. But will this be met with euphoria as in the past or with skepticism, as happened in Europe recently? If it’s the latter, remember what gold did the last time there was both an oil shock and a loss of faith in government:

(https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-images/Gold-1970s-.jpg?itok=bBxs2Omt)
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-06-17/will-false-flag-iran-war-cause-financial-crisis

Agelbert NOTE: Excellent article, but I have a few quibbles. I have taken the liberty of correcting the following sentence from the article:
 "Combine these two problems – a Middle East war sending oil much higher, and a near-universal lack of belief in the rationale for that war – and the remaining faith in American competence and honesty might WOULD evaporate."

I am of te studied opinion that anyone in the USA who still has any faith whatsoever in U.S. Government competence and honesty is a delusional victim of fascist propagnada.
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F783_015c2e1a3250a81ec5409760e4636175a6f565f23a75028afb5f451719fdccb3.jpeg&hash=a0242c7b8904f1931dc481dd54fe51b39b900eff)

These  fools and knaves, no matter what the MSM would have you believe, represent a small miinority of the U.S. population. While it is true that the M.I.C. is filled with them, that does NOT ensure that they have "won" anything but the demise of our country from within. They have LOST the credibility they require to govern. So, while they still have the power to wreak fascist havoc, doing so is a suicidal move by them.

A commenter voiced my second "quibble":
Quote
alamac
An Iran war would cause a hell of a lot worse than a "financial crisis".  But sure, there would be one of those too.

The expression "There will be HELL to pay" comes to mind.

(https://dingo.care2.com/c2p/GlobalZero/GZ500x600.png)
Title: The War Profiteering OIL-igarchy needs to be replaced by COMMON SENSE GOVERNMENT of we are TOAST
Post by: AGelbert on June 17, 2019, 02:15:11 pm
Here’s Blum’s list of over 50 foreign leaders whom the United States 🦍 has attempted to assassinate: (https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list)

1949 – Kim Koo, Korean opposition leader
1950s – CIA/Neo-Nazi hit list of more than 200 political figures in West Germany to be “put out of the way” in the event of a Soviet invasion
1950s – Chou En-lai, Prime minister of China, several attempts on his life
1950s, 1962 – Sukarno, President of Indonesia
1951 – Kim Il Sung, Premier of North Korea
1953 – Mohammed Mossadegh, Prime Minister of Iran
1950s (mid) – Claro M. Recto, Philippines opposition leader
1955 – Jawaharlal Nehru, Prime Minister of India
1957 – Gamal Abdul Nasser, President of Egypt
1959, 1963, 1969 – Norodom Sihanouk, leader of Cambodia
1960 – Brig. Gen. Abdul Karim Kassem, leader of Iraq
1950s-70s – José Figueres, President of Costa Rica, two attempts on his life
1961 – Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier, leader of Haiti
1961 – Patrice Lumumba, Prime Minister of the Congo (Zaire)
1961 – Gen. Rafael Trujillo, leader of Dominican Republic
1963 – Ngo Dinh Diem, President of South Vietnam
1960s-70s – Fidel Castro, President of Cuba, many attempts on his life
1960s – Raúl Castro, high official in government of Cuba
1965 – Francisco Caamaño, Dominican Republic opposition leader
1965-6 – Charles de Gaulle, President of France
1967 – Che Guevara, Cuban leader
1970 – Salvador Allende, President of Chile
1970 – Gen. Rene Schneider, Commander-in-Chief of Army, Chile
1970s, 1981 – General Omar Torrijos, leader of Panama
1972 – General Manuel Noriega, Chief of Panama Intelligence
1975 – Mobutu Sese Seko, President of Zaire
1976 – Michael Manley, Prime Minister of Jamaica
1980-1986 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya, several plots and attempts upon his life
1982 – Ayatollah Khomeini, leader of Iran
1983 – Gen. Ahmed Dlimi, Moroccan Army commander
1983 – Miguel d’Escoto, Foreign Minister of Nicaragua
1984 – The nine comandantes of the Sandinista National Directorate
1985 – Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, Lebanese Shiite leader (80 people killed in the attempt)
1991 – Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq
1993 – Mohamed Farah Aideed, prominent clan leader of Somalia
1998, 2001-2 – Osama bin Laden, leading Islamic militant
1999 – Slobodan Milosevic, President of Yugoslavia
2002 – Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, Afghan Islamic leader and warlord
2003 – Saddam Hussein and his two sons
2011 – Muammar Qaddafi, leader of Libya

Here is Blum’s list of U.S. attempts to overthrow governments (* indicates success):

China 1949 to early 1960s
Albania 1949-53
East Germany 1950s
Iran 1953 *
Guatemala 1954 *
Costa Rica mid-1950s
Syria 1956-7
Egypt 1957
Indonesia 1957-8
British Guiana 1953-64 *
Iraq 1963 *
North Vietnam 1945-73
Cambodia 1955-70 *
Laos 1958 *, 1959 *, 1960 *
Ecuador 1960-63 *
Congo 1960 *
France 1965
Brazil 1962-64 *
Dominican Republic 1963 *
Cuba 1959 to present
Bolivia 1964 *
Indonesia 1965 *
Ghana 1966 *
Chile 1964-73 *
Greece 1967 *
Costa Rica 1970-71
Bolivia 1971 *
Australia 1973-75 *
Angola 1975, 1980s
Zaire 1975
Portugal 1974-76 *
Jamaica 1976-80 *
Seychelles 1979-81
Chad 1981-82 *
Grenada 1983 *
South Yemen 1982-84
Suriname 1982-84
Fiji 1987 *
Libya 1980s
Nicaragua 1981-90 *
Panama 1989 *
Bulgaria 1990 *
Albania 1991 *
Iraq 1991
Afghanistan 1980s *
Somalia 1993
Yugoslavia 1999-2000 *
Ecuador 2000 *
Afghanistan 2001 *
Venezuela 2002 *
Iraq 2003 *
Haiti 2004 *
Somalia 2007 to present
Honduras 2009
Libya 2011 *
Syria 2012
Ukraine 2014 *
[arguably, Syria 1949 needs to be added to this list. –DS]

Here is Blum’s list of nations bombed by the United States:

Korea and China 1950-53 (Korean War)
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959-1961
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Laos 1964-73
Vietnam 1961-73
Cambodia 1969-70
Guatemala 1967-69
Grenada 1983
Lebanon 1983, 1984 (both Lebanese and Syrian targets)
Libya 1986
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Iran 1987
Panama 1989
Iraq 1991 (Persian Gulf War)
Kuwait 1991
Somalia 1993
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
Yemen 2002
Iraq 1991-2003 (US/UK on regular basis)
Iraq 2003-2015
Afghanistan 2001-2015
Pakistan 2007-2015
Somalia 2007-8, 2011
Yemen 2009, 2011
Libya 2011, 2015
Syria 2014-2016

[Drone strikes in the Philippines should be added to this list. As perhaps should be all the islands and territories destroyed by test bombings. –DS]

Blum adds these further bombings:

Iran, April 2003 – hit by US missiles during bombing of Iraq, killing at least one person

Pakistan, 2002-03 – bombed by US planes several times as part of combat against the Taliban and other opponents of the US occupation of Afghanistan

China, 1999 – its heavily bombed embassy in Belgrade is legally Chinese territory, and it appears rather certain that the bombing was no accident (see chapter 25 of Rogue State)

France, 1986 – After the French government refused the use of its air space to US warplanes headed for a bombing raid on Libya, the planes were forced to take another, longer route; when they reached Libya they bombed so close to the French embassy that the building was damaged and all communication links knocked out.

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, May 13, 1985 – A bomb dropped by a police helicopter burned down an entire block, some 60 homes destroyed, 11 dead, including several small children. The police, the mayor’s office, and the FBI were all involved in this effort to evict a black organization called MOVE from the house they lived in.

If we add in other missing instances and go back to and prior to WWII the list starts to look like this:

Dominican Republic 1915 – 1935
Haiti 1915 – 1934
Logan County, West Virginia 1921
Tulsa, Oklahoma 1921
Honduras 1924, 1925
Nicaragua 1927 – 1933
Algeria, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, China, Crete, Czechoslovakia, France, Germany, Greece, Guam, Hungary, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Libya, Luxembourg, Morocco, Myanmar (Burma), Netherlands, New Guinea and the Solomon Islands, Okinawa, Philippines, Poland, Romania, Saipan, Taiwan (Formosa), Thailand, Tinian, Tunisia, Vietnam (French Indochina), Yugoslavia 1941 – 1945
Marshall Islands, Republic of Kiribati, Alaska, Nevada, Colorado, Mississippi, New Mexico nuclear testing 1945 – 1962
Korea and China 1950 – 1953
Guatemala 1954
Indonesia 1958
Cuba 1959 – 1961
Guatemala 1960
Congo 1964
Laos 1964 – 1973
Vietnam 1961 – 1973
Cambodia 1969 – 1970
Guatemala 1967 – 1969
El Salvador 1980s
Nicaragua 1980s
Grenada 1983
Lebanon 1983, 1984
Libya 1986
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 1985
Iran 1987
Panama 1989
Kuwait 1991
Iraq 1991 – 2017
Somalia 1993
Bosnia 1994, 1995
Sudan 1998
Afghanistan 1998
Yugoslavia 1999
Afghanistan 2001 – 2017
Yemen 2002
Pakistan 2002 – 2003
Iran 2003
Pakistan 2007 – 2017
Somalia 2007 – 2008, 2011
Yemen 2009, 2011, 2016-2017
Libya 2011, 2015 – 2017
Philippines 2012
Syria 2014 – 2017

Then there’s Blum’s list of instances of the United States attempting to suppress a populist or nationalist movement ( indicates success):

China – 1945-49
France – 1947 *
Italy – 1947-1970s *
Greece – 1947-49 *
Philippines – 1945-53 *
Korea – 1945-53 *
Haiti – 1959 *
Laos – 1957-73
Vietnam – 1961-73
Thailand – 1965-73 *
Peru – 1965 *
Dominican Republic – 1965 *
Uruguay – 1969-72 *
South Africa – 1960s-1980s
East Timor – 1975-1999 *
Philippines – 1970s-1990s *
El Salvador – 1980-92 *
Colombia – 1990s to early 2000s *
Peru – 1997 *
Iraq – 2003 to present *
https://williamblum.org/essays/read/overthrowing-other-peoples-governments-the-master-list


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-141217224005.png) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201645-1486464.jpeg&hash=bfa44b2ee2b1d6d1ea71a024b1bd6e9cf1328326)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132401-16881856.gif&hash=ef5bd30cec7a50a81f3507f9bd328189dead7aa2)  This War ☠️ Profiteering 🦕🦖 OIL-igarchy needs to be Replaced by COMMON SENSE GOVERNMENT Or We Are TOAST:

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F4153_Consequences%2520of%2520Fossil%2520Fuel%2520Government.png&hash=f673bc1634b290c2da3ea4fb7c82812bbe769956)

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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 18, 2019, 12:14:49 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Pastor Robert W. Reed explains why so-called "Just War" doctrine is not now, or ever was, a Christian Doctrine.
 

🔊 🕊 Nonresistance (https://www.sermonaudio.com/saplayer/playpopup.asp?SID=1231295111)
Title: Wilkerson: US Further Isolates Itself From its Allies Over Iran Policy
Post by: AGelbert on June 18, 2019, 03:02:15 pm
Wilkerson: US 🦍(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190419232147.png&hash=b9d818543137cfd7ac4b712c1c25fe3b94b6d174)Further Isolates Itself From its Allies Over Iran Policy
10,698 views
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https://youtu.be/uB5FSRdlfyA

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The Real News Network

Published on Jun 18, 2019

With the announcement that Iran will break the terms of its nuclear agreement, for stockpiling enriched uranium, the stage is set for a confrontation between the US and its European allies. The situation will contribute to greater US isolation, says Col. Wilkerson

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.

Category News & Politics
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 19, 2019, 06:48:41 pm
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Did Trump 🦀 Manufacture Iran Oil Tanker Attack to Start a War?
7,453 views

https://youtu.be/fFLt1wLShok

Thom Hartmann Program

Published on Jun 18, 2019

Could Trump lie the United States into a war with Iran as part of his election campaign?

Iran and the US disagree on whether an Iranian vessel attacked an oil tanker or was trying to save it by removing a mine. Trump could use this to start a war with Iran and have us lied in to war with Iran.

The video isn’t clear wither it was an Iranian military vessel. We don’t know who placed the mine, if there was a mine on the oil tanker at all.


📽️ WATCH NEXT: War with Iran Could Play Out
https://youtu.be/Y2xJLTfgVZU

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Category News & Politics

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Title: The 😈 Secret Plan to Fake a War with Iran!
Post by: AGelbert on June 20, 2019, 07:52:56 pm
The Secret Plan to Fake a War with Iran!
2,565 views

https://youtu.be/VDwVnX_8iB0

Thom Hartmann Program

Published on Jun 20, 2019

Donald Trump is not the first person to try to fake a war with Iran.

Before John Bolton's oil fire,Vice President  Dick Cheney suggested that the United States could fake an incident and take the nation to war.

If the Republicans were willing to go to fake their way into war before, what will Trump's (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) Republicans be willing to do?



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Category News & Politics
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 20, 2019, 11:18:26 pm
"War is murder on a grand scale." -- Robert W. Reed


Sermon by Pastor Robert W. Reed | War Series

Victory Baptist Church    

SUN 11/25/2012

📢 The Atrocities of War (https://www.sermonaudio.com/saplayer/playpopup.asp?SID=112612102337)


Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on June 21, 2019, 11:41:46 am
My wife told me she saw a cable news segment (on CNN or MSNBC) in which an interview subject pulled out the old New China News Agency trope, "As Is Well Known," and said that "everybody recalls" that the bombing of the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 was done by Iran.

In fact, she asked me, "Who do you recall bombed the Marine Barracks in Lebanon?" My response was "Hezbollah," although I am not typically Mr. Answer Guy. As it turns out, per CNN the bombing was traced to Hezbollah, a militant and political group that originated in Lebanon in 1982. Iranian and Syrian involvement was also suspected, but not apparently demonstrated.

Not for nothing did Gore Vidal call this country "The United States of Amnesia."

How "consent" is manufactured. In much the same way as lunch meat.
Title: Donald Trump Owns This Iran Crisis
Post by: Surly1 on June 21, 2019, 11:49:08 am
Donald Trump Owns This Iran Crisis
https://www.truthdig.com/articles/donald-trump-owns-this-iran-crisis/

Donald Trump Owns This Iran Crisis

Donald Trump Owns This Iran Crisis
President Donald Trump. (Gage Skidmore / Flickr)

The warmongers on Trump’s national security team apparently convinced him to set in motion an aerial strike against Iran Thursday in retaliation for the downing of a US drone over waters claimed by Iran.

Then at the last minute—according to reporting by Michael D. Shear, Eric Schmitt, Michael Crowley and Maggie Haberman at the New York Times—Trump seems to have listened to generals who warned him that things could spiral out of control, even into war. He issued a stand down order. At least for now.

It isn’t even clear that there was a casus belli. On domestic issues, the U.S. press is locked into an one-the-one-hand, on-the-other-hand disastrous story-telling mode that has enormously benefited those pushing falsehoods such as that cigarettes don’t cause cancer or putting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere does not cause global heating.

Yet, when it comes to reporting on international security affairs, most U.S. reporting does not fall more than an inch from the Pentagon line of the day (often this dishonesty is the work of editors and publisher-owners rather than the fault of news-gathering reporters, as we saw at McClatchy during the Iraq War).

We heard all about the way Trump attempted to walk back his tough talk, saying that he was sure that Iran shot down the U.S. drone by accident. The statement, like his later stand down order, is a clear sign of the division between him and his warmongering appointees, such as Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and national security adviser John Bolton.

Trump created this crisis by breaching the 2015 Iran nuclear deal. Having pocketed Iran’s mothballing of 80 percent of its uranium enrichment program, Trump slapped the harshest sanctions ever seen against any country on Iran, unilaterally and in the teeth of opposition from NATO allies and the permanent members of the UN Security Council. In other words, he screwed Iran over. Europe cannot stop the U.S. sanctions, since they are third-party sanctions and European firms who do business both in the U.S. and in Iran will be fined billions of dollars for their dealings with Tehran.

So Trump’s attempts to back peddle from his hard liners are useless as long as the U.S. has a financial blockade on Iran preventing it from selling its petroleum. A naval blockade preventing a country from exporting a key commodity is considered an act of war in international law. It is hard to see the difference between that and an effective financial blockade. Same outcome.

The U.S. press almost never interviews non-U.S. world leaders, especially those to whom Washington is hostile. It is almost as though when it comes to national security reporting, American news outlets go into war propaganda mode. Warmongers in high office know all about this phenomenon and use it to get the wars they crave.

So with regard to the shooting down of the U.S. drone by Iran, I think it is important to hear the Iranian side of the story. It may be false, it may be Iranian war propaganda. We can decide that once we’ve heard it.

BBC Monitoring translated from a Persian website the statement from the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps:

    • “The Global Hawk surveillance drone took off from one the US bases in the south of the Persian Gulf at 0014 [1944 gmt] and disabled its identification system in a move contravening aviation regulations. It secretly flew from the Strait of Hormuz to Chabahar and on its way back travelling westward, the unmanned aerial vehicle violated the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran in the region of Strait of Hormuz and started collecting information and spying,” IRGC’s statement read . . At 0405 [2335 gmt] and while the intrusive plane was inside our territories, the Guard’s aerospace defence unit shot it down.”

Source: Fars News Agency website, Tehran, in Persian 0919 gmt 20 Jun 19

In another report, Iran’s news service said that a 3 Khordad anti-aircraft missile was deployed against the drone.

If Iran is right that the drone flew into Iranian territory, the incident is still an unfortunate raising of tensions. But if it was over international waters, as the U.S. maintains, Iran was in the wrong.

One problem for these definitions is that the U.S., in accordance with the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, recognizes only 12 nautical miles off the coast as belonging to the country, whereas many nations claim a much larger portion of the sea along their coasts than that. The U.S. Air Force says that the drone was never closer to the Iranian coast than 21 nautical miles. One of the unfortunate consequences of the hostility of Trump and his capos like John Bolton to the UN and international law is that it makes it harder for the U.S. to insist with a straight face that other countries take these things seriously. Bolton once denied that the UN even exists.

In the absence of an agreement on the UN definition of territorial waters, some sort of U.S. Iran bilateral negotiations would be preferable to cowboying it.

Again, this crisis is of Trump’s making. His conviction that he could stiff Iran without consequences, all for the sake of looking tough with his MAGA base, was a serious miscalculation. It is the problem with having an ignorant and yet opinionated man at the helm of the U.S. government. He is guaranteed to make basic mistakes that put the U.S. on a war footing even though that appears to be the last thing Trump wants.

Unfortunately, Iran will provoke again, and next time the U.S. warmongers may win the argument.

Title: Iran has never provoked. It is the USA that is doing all the provoking.
Post by: AGelbert on June 21, 2019, 03:30:19 pm
Quote
Unfortunately, Iran will provoke again, and next time the U.S. warmongers may win the argument. (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg12659/#msg12659)

Iran has never provoked. It is the USA that is doing all the provoking. The article correctly blames Trump for all this skullduggery to get the U.S. into a war with Iran (with 100% M.I.C. backing), but fails to look at the entire picture from 1953 to the present.

I will briefly do so, starting just from 1979. The U.S. M.I.C. waged Proxy war (by Iraq WITH U.S. MANUFACTURED CHEMICAL WEAPONS 👹 RUMSFELD GAVE TO IRAQ) that killed thousands of Iranian men, women and children followed by SANCTIONS, SANCTIONS and SANCTIONS all the way to the present.

In July of 1988, the U.S. ahot down an Iranian commercial airliner claiming said airliner was "mistaken" for an F14. If that is not a DELIBERATE act of war, I do not know what is. The FACT that the airliner had its transponder on, CLEARLY identifying who it was, aside for paranoid moment (i.e. the laughable, but expected, claim that it could have been an Iranian F14 "disguised" with the same code on its transponder as said airliner in order to "attack" the U.S. battledhip), radar operaters on the U.S. Ship knew, just like I KNOW, because I am an experienced air traffic controller, what the primary target of a fighter jet looks like in comparison to a large airliner (BIG, BLATANT, OBVIOUS DIFFERENCE!).

So, even if they suspected the transponder code was faked, they would clearly see that the primary target radar return was that of a much larger aircraft than that of  an F-14 fighter.

That was TOTALLY unjustified, regardless of the 1983 bombing destruction of the Lebanon barracks of U.S. Marines (attributed indirectly to Iran) that had no business being where they were in the first place. The "amnesia" in the United States of Amnesia is, as per the manufacturing of consent you correctly mentioned (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg12658/#msg12658), rather selective.

Iran GDP was stunted while that of Saudi Arabia grew over 800% from 1990 to the present. >:( Despite continuous provoking by the U.S., Iran went out of its way to avoid confrontation.

Then there is the drone thing. It is total bullshit to say Iran knocked out said drone in international airspace. WHY? The wind patterns. If you go to nullschool (https://earth.nullschool.net/#2019/06/19/1800Z/wind/isobaric/500hPa/orthographic=52.00,26.40,3000/loc=57.182,26.289), you can see the general wind patterns in the area. For a limited time, you can see the wind patterns over the exact place the drone was flying. I just made a screenshot so you can understand what is going on here (NOTE: 1 hPa = 1 mb).

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/styles/renewablerevolution/files/5080_Drone%20shoot%20down%20wind.png)

The drone was obviously pointed towards Iranian terrain. It got hit with an Iranian missile and destroyed. The parts kept going ballistically for a couple of hundred yards or so before the trajectory was totally governed by gravity and the winds, which pushed said parts AWAY from the Iranian coast at the time, all the way to the ocean surface. Some wing sections, since they are lighter and can remain airborne longer, thus being more affected by the prevailing winds, may have fallen further out over the ocean.

So, because of the winds at the time of the drone's destruction, there is NO WAY that the drone could have fallen straight down into Iranian terrain.

Of particular interest when analysing this incident is the fact that this type of drone DOES is not simply look at stuff. It tests radar coverage and missile batteries that are activated by the drone flight path in order to plan how U.S. fighters and bombers can more effectively evade said defensive facilities when the war is initiated.

Therefore, Iran had no choice but to stop that gathering of military intelligence that would result in weakened defensive capabilities.

It is breathtakingly FALSE to claim that Iran is doing any "provoking" whatsoever. This "blame the victim" bullshit about how fine a line Iran should walk to avoid looking "warlike" is tiresome, considering the track record of our War PROVOKING M.I.C.!

YEAH, the M.I.C. wants Iran to be a nice little injun, roll over, invite some "objective" American inspectors in, along with a few thousand American "peace keeping" troops, of course, to give them "democracy" (good and hard) so the "great white father" in Washington (and Israel) won't get mad at them. If the Iranians "see reason", everything will be nice and dandy, won't it? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718202127.gif&hash=acc63221521ebaf3f238088fd92d1ae3a08b6e48)
Title: The United States has no lawful claim of self-defense to justify a military attack on Iran.
Post by: AGelbert on June 21, 2019, 07:25:55 pm
(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/bMi5K4CDjFlORKNzbtb8lit774Y1msNFvqsbSgXnjuUWN_dpHltajASyKjxYyLW_EG-St1vg9JhrJR1vAL8SwjJmNeDervxCdhNS7cu1ZyWAx3J0=s0-d-e1-ft#https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/truthout_logo.jpg)

PUBLISHED June 21, 2019

By Marjorie Cohn, Truthout

(https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_0621-iran-drone-1200x852.jpg)

Iran Had the Legal Right to Shoot Down U.S. Spy Drone (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Trump ordered military strikes against Iran to retaliate for its shootdown of a U.S. drone, but then pulled back and didn't launch them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is falsely conflating Iran with al-Qaeda to rationalize striking Iran. But Iran has the legal right to control its airspace. The United States has no lawful claim of self-defense to justify a military attack on Iran.

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/iran-had-the-legal-right-to-shoot-down-us-spy-drone/)
Title: War Survivor Ilhan Omar Makes Impassioned Case Against Iran Attack
Post by: AGelbert on June 21, 2019, 07:55:54 pm
(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/bMi5K4CDjFlORKNzbtb8lit774Y1msNFvqsbSgXnjuUWN_dpHltajASyKjxYyLW_EG-St1vg9JhrJR1vAL8SwjJmNeDervxCdhNS7cu1ZyWAx3J0=s0-d-e1-ft#https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/truthout_logo.jpg)

PUBLISHED June 21, 2019

BY Jake Johnson, Common Dreams
(https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/2019_0621-ilhan-omar-1200x800.jpg)

War Survivor Ilhan Omar Makes Impassioned Case Against Iran Attack

Citing her firsthand experience of the horrors of military conflict as a refugee from war-torn Somalia, Rep. Ilhan Omar Thursday night made an impassioned case against war with Iran. "War is hell," she wrote. "Sending teenagers to die, or return with lifelong wounds seen and unseen, does not make you a bigger person. It makes you smaller."

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/war-survivor-ilhan-omar-makes-impassioned-case-against-iran-attack/)
Title: Trump Pulls Back From Iran Attack as Bolton and Pompeo Continue to Push for War
Post by: AGelbert on June 21, 2019, 08:04:01 pm
(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/bMi5K4CDjFlORKNzbtb8lit774Y1msNFvqsbSgXnjuUWN_dpHltajASyKjxYyLW_EG-St1vg9JhrJR1vAL8SwjJmNeDervxCdhNS7cu1ZyWAx3J0=s0-d-e1-ft#https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/truthout_logo.jpg)

Trump Pulls Back From Iran Attack as Bolton and Pompeo Continue to Push for War

BY Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!

PUBLISHED June 21, 2019

After threatening to strike Iran in retaliation for shooting down an unmanned U.S. drone, President Trump reportedly approved, and then abruptly called off, military strikes. The move came after the operation was already underway in its initial stages, with warships and planes already being put into position.

Watch the Video and Read the Transcript → (https://truthout.org/video/trump-pulls-back-from-iran-attack-as-bolton-and-pompeo-continue-to-push-for-war/)
Title: Re: The United States has no lawful claim of self-defense to justify a military attack on Iran.
Post by: Surly1 on June 21, 2019, 08:49:11 pm

Iran Had the Legal Right to Shoot Down U.S. Spy Drone (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Trump ordered military strikes against Iran to retaliate for its shootdown of a U.S. drone, but then pulled back and didn't launch them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is falsely conflating Iran with al-Qaeda to rationalize striking Iran. But Iran has the legal right to control its airspace. The United States has no lawful claim of self-defense to justify a military attack on Iran.

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/iran-had-the-legal-right-to-shoot-down-us-spy-drone/)

When you start to sift the ****, you learn that Iran and the US have different definitions of what constitutes Iran's legal airspace and operate accordingly. Not surprisingly Iran claims a wider border than. the US recognizes. A foreign policy version of heads-I-win-tails-you-lose.
Title: What the US "recognizes" as to the Iranian territorial waters border is deliberately abusive and arb
Post by: AGelbert on June 21, 2019, 10:58:38 pm

Iran Had the Legal Right to Shoot Down U.S. Spy Drone (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)

Trump ordered military strikes against Iran to retaliate for its shootdown of a U.S. drone, but then pulled back and didn't launch them. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is falsely conflating Iran with al-Qaeda to rationalize striking Iran. But Iran has the legal right to control its airspace. The United States has no lawful claim of self-defense to justify a military attack on Iran.

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/iran-had-the-legal-right-to-shoot-down-us-spy-drone/)

When you start to sift the (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F3104_shit%2520bitmap.png&hash=13c3368bd73680b8cbcbaaa8e306e42cb17d4d41), you learn that Iran and the US have different definitions of what constitutes Iran's legal airspace and operate accordingly. Not surprisingly Iran claims a wider border than. the US recognizes. A foreign policy version of heads-I-win-tails-you-lose.

True, but the one that plays by internationl rules here is Iran, not the USA. As a pilot and air traffic controller, I know all about the ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zones) the USA created with TOTAL disregard for the international rules that the USA helped to craft AND is quite adamant about applying to everybody else. That's for aircraft, but it doesn't stop there.

I remember when the USA even denied foreign fishing vessels from fishing within 200 MILES of the U.S. coast because, uh, that's U.S. territory, don'tcha know?

Iran plays by the internationally accepted rules on the extent of its territorial waters next to its coast. The USA does not. What the US "recognizes" as to the Iranian territorial waters border is deliberately abusive and arbitrary. There is a formula for that in international law. Unlike the USA, the Iranians adhere to it.
Title: Iran vs America: What's Next?
Post by: AGelbert on June 24, 2019, 06:54:51 pm
Iran vs America: What's Next?

https://youtu.be/sPbXkRDc30w

Thom Hartmann Program

Published on Jun 24, 2019

Quote
Jamal Abdi updated us on the new sanctions on Iran.

Trump’s Iranian sanctions are designed to force Iran into accepting what the US wants. The Iranian sanctions are Trump and Pompeo wanting the Iranian administration to change. The US sanctions on Iran are making it harder for moderate Iranians to protest their government rather than easier.

The military strikes against Iran which were stopped ten minutes before launch and has confused both Iran and the US. Are economic sanctions ever successful?

John Bolton and Mike Pompeo are running the world and running Trump. They want military action, not economic ones.

Will there be a regime change in Iran as a result of the new economic sanctions? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185040-16582181.gif&hash=0d99dd3e7a01101b8b7d5d1d810050efa1fc13df) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818180835-1625583.gif&hash=a2eb9b0838b0a6c6a52f7ffe11949f008333d97a)


YEAH, the M.I.C. wants Iran to be a nice little injun, roll over, invite some "objective" American inspectors in, along with a few thousand American "peace keeping" troops, of course, to give them "democracy" (good and hard) so the "great white father" in Washington (and Israel) won't get mad at them. If the Iranians "see reason", everything will be nice and dandy, won't it? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718202127.gif&hash=acc63221521ebaf3f238088fd92d1ae3a08b6e48)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 22, 2019, 01:24:44 pm
(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/XF4DTWXO8U5hQP9UKa6GxldxLtHG9Y2-irg2bRqkXJzejTebGet5iuvYgYOn_re9u-acBSd9K4rm_IKNSzL0ftOu9b4KsIiGDi0cjMNbteEaNUfEBOTHE5bvkXoOuSEwsOiQLI_SqXdOUrkORdAotzWXmTvSdA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://www.truthdig.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/Dino-Fish-Hedges-10Jun2018-1024x818-626x500.jpg)

JUL 22, 2019

Scapegoating Iran

By Chris Hedges —  Don’t expect U.S. politicians and generals to accept responsibility for the Mideast mess when they can blame it on Iran.

Read more (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/scapegoating-iran-2/)
Title: Pentagon Wants 16-Year-Old Kids To Fight The Empire's Wars
Post by: Surly1 on July 26, 2019, 07:03:21 am
Pentagon Wants 16-Year-Old Kids To Fight The Empire's Wars
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-07-25/pentagon-wants-16-year-old-kids-fight-empires-wars


Authored By Kurt Nimmo via The Ron Paul Institute for Peace & Prosperity

(https://zh-prod-1cc738ca-7d3b-4a72-b792-20bd8d8fa069.storage.googleapis.com/s3fs-public/styles/inline_image_desktop/public/inline-images/military%20recruitment%20age.jpg?itok=U1FLqOb_)

The Pentagon is desperate. Far too many millennials are criminals, so luring them in to become the latest crop of bullet stoppers for the state is a nonstarter.

Solution? Recruit 16-year-olds. Most have yet graduated to petty and violent crime, although a lot of them are in video game training for a future of violence and self-destructive stupidity.

It’s not being widely reported in the media. Recruiters are ready to go after tenth-graders. They are itching to snag kids before they engage in a life of crime, or before they have fully-mature brains (well, some of them) and decide to kill and be killed isn’t much of a career choice.

First, though, the state will have to give these little darlings the “right” to vote for a crop of handpicked carnival barkers, euphemistically called representatives of the people.

I don’t know about you, but when I was sixteen all I thought about was cruising in my father’s car with a freshly minted state permission to drive card in my wallet as I searched desperately for girls willing to make-out in the backseat.

It took a year or two before I was politically aware, mostly as a result of Richard Nixon’s plan to “draft” me (polite speak for slavery) into the meat grinder he inherited from LBJ, aka the Vietnam War, where I would either be minced, traumatized for life, or lucky enough to stay behind lines and scrub latrines while other kids fought and senselessly died.


Around this time college, high school students, and millions of other concerned Americans marched against the war, a truly remarkable one-time event now impossible in America because the military is “volunteer” and our wars are “humanitarian.”

Most of these so-called volunteers “joined” the military because they have so few other career options (if you consider killing other people a career choice). Brought up in largely single-parent homes and taught all manner of nonsense in public schools that now resemble locked down prisons, these “volunteers” are completely ignorant of the reason the state needs them to fight and die.

It’s all about the psychopathic dominance of a tiny elite. The elite doesn’t send its Harvard-bound kids into its neoliberal meat grinder (because so many of these silver spoon darlings have bone spurs and such).

But this system is breaking down, mostly because the state upholds standards that worked in the 1940s and 50s, but are completely irrelevant now. They insist it is not permissible to fill the empty ranks with criminals. Hired killers must be held to the highest moral standard.

So, like the United Kingdom, the US is looking to 16-year old kids to fight in the name of the corporate state and, of course, our freedom to live hand-to-mouth in a political and cultural cesspool.

Democrats like the idea of 16-year-old voters. Most are far more impressionable and less cantankerous than your average middle-age deplorable. They also approve the idea of feeding kids into the military, but you don’t hear a lot about that because Democrats and progressives don’t think much about war. It’s a big blind spot for them. There are more important issues, for instance trans-gender bathrooms.

I don’t think this is going to turn out like they think it will. Far too many 16-year olds will flunk out of basic training. Most don’t have what it takes, never mind all those formative years killing bad guys on computer screens.

If The Donald gets us into a big shooting war over in the Middle East or in the South China Sea, the mandatory servitude of conscription will be required. It won’t be a turkey shoot like Iraq or Libya. It will be an existential threat, so all males —criminally inclined or not — between 16 and 45 will be inducted, same as they were after FDR tricked the Japanese into invading Pearl Harbor, or Johnson said the North Vietnamese attacked our warships in the Gulf of Tonkin.

But the kids are oblivious. They were taught to be so. And the propaganda machine will tell them they’re sacrificing their lives (or limbs and mental health) for the noble cause of star-spangled democracy, which most of them know close to zero about.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on July 28, 2019, 04:01:10 pm
SNIPPET:

There is a reason that most countries polled in December 2013 by Gallup called the United States the greatest threat to peace in the world, and why Pew found that viewpoint increased in (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fstyles%2Frenewablerevolution%2Ffiles%2F809_84688966.jpeg&hash=7f3e84eea23fef901b7df618784dc2005290f591) 2017.

But it is a reason that eludes that strain of (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) U.S. academia that first defines war as something that nations and groups other than the United States do (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2F2.bp.blogspot.com%2F_9HT4xZyDmh4%2FTOHhxzA0wLI%2FAAAAAAAAEUk%2FoeHDS2cfxWQ%2Fs200%2FSmiley_Angel_Wings_Halo.jpg&hash=13281f1944b60773bf12b29387b70be77cc1fe16), and then concludes that war has nearly vanished from the earth. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818180835-16181943.gif&hash=0b93e71ee5e24bbe02555e0d648a1283e0e9651d)

Since World War II, during a supposed golden age of peace, the United States military has killed or helped kill some 20 million people, overthrown at least 36 governments, interfered in at least 84 foreign elections, attempted to assassinate over 50 foreign leaders, and dropped bombs on people in over 30 countries. The United States is responsible for the deaths of 5 million people in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and over 1 million just since 2003 in Iraq.

Learn more:

U.S. WARS AND HOSTILE ACTIONS: A LIST (http://davidswanson.org/warlist/)
Title: Laura Flanders Show: The Mad Military 👹💵🎩 Money Machine
Post by: AGelbert on August 04, 2019, 01:44:32 pm
Laura Flanders Show: The Mad 🦍 Military Money 👹💵🎩 Machine

Partner Content Provided By:The Laura Flanders Show

August 4, 2019

There’s something sick about U.S. 🐍 Military spending. It’s certainly not keeping anyone safe. This week, why we the public spend billions on bad technology and what happens to service people who speak up about it. Then, a peace economy  – what might it look like? I’ll talk to Jodie Evans of Code Pink.

https://youtu.be/Td_R-v7eP6c

https://therealnews.com/third_party_content/laura-flanders-show-the-mad-military-money-machine


(https://78.media.tumblr.com/f763599d30eaeb44b0c2eee92a26a8c5/tumblr_palizer1YQ1tsf68ao1_400.gif)
(https://desultoryheroics.files.wordpress.com/2014/07/6a01053596fb28970c01348365f7e1970c-450wi.jpg)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-120716190938.png&hash=01feab1c7345a4e98764e0f9d24b2d69171b93c2)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on August 13, 2019, 10:42:56 pm
Where is 👹 Jeffrey Epstein: Hell or Tel Aviv?
17,387 views

https://youtu.be/ktW60OmUWFM

TruNews
Streamed live 4 hours ago

Today on TRUNEWS we discuss the fate of the world’s most notorious convicted (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-030819164704.png) and the glaring inconsistencies surrounding his alleged death. We also detail the unrest of the century unraveling in Hong Kong, as the city faces a potentially irreversible future toward ruin and military occupation. Rick Wiles, Edward Szall, Doc Burkhart, Kerry Kinsey. Airdate: August 13, 2019

#TRUNEWS #EPSTEIN #WITSEC
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on August 17, 2019, 11:13:45 pm
North Korea Suspends Talks With South Korea Because of U.S. Sanctions
August 16, 2019


While U.S.-North Korea nuclear talks fail to proceed because of a lack of unanimity within the Trump administration, the North suspended peace talks with the South because of the U.S.'s refusal to lift economic sanctions, says Tim Shorrock

https://youtu.be/85AkMBQzP1A

Story Transcript

GREG WILPERT: Welcome to The Real News Network. I’m Greg Wilpert in Baltimore.

North Korea tested two short-range ballistic missiles on Friday according to South Korea’s military. This was the sixth time in the past month that North Korea tested ballistic missiles. Friday’s launches took place shortly after the North described South Korea’s President as “impudent” and announced that North-South Korean peace talks are over. The North Korean government protested against US-South Korean military drills that began last week, saying that these represented a “rehearsal for war.”

The cancellation of North-South Korean peace talks complicates the on-again, off-again nuclear talks between the US and North Korea. The two sides had agreed to restart talks in a personal meeting between North Korean leader Kim Jong-un and President Donald Trump in late June, but so far nothing much has happened. Last week, Trump said that Kim Jong-un had told him the talks could resume once the military drills concluded.

Joining me now to discuss the latest developments on the North Korean peninsula is Tim Shorrock. He writes about US-Korea relations for The Nation and for the Center for Investigative Reporting. Thanks for joining us again, Tim.

TIM SHORROCK: Thank you.

GREG WILPERT: So these were the sixth set of ballistic missile tests that the North has engaged in, in the past month. This seems rather bold considering that agreements had been made to restart nuclear talks with the US and peace negotiations with South Korea. Now, Trump has generally downplayed these launches, saying that they aren’t nuclear and aren’t intercontinental missiles. North Korea though is blaming the South for military drills. Now, first, are the two sets of talks really falling apart? And second, who would you say is responsible for the faltering of the talks?

TIM SHORROCK: Well, it seems that the North-South talks are definitely falling apart, which is too bad. I was there in Seoul almost a year ago in September when Kim Jong-un and Moon Jae-in had a very successful summit meeting in Pyongyang and they decided on some very sweeping agreements, including one to demilitarize the situation, de-escalate the military situation between the two sides. And they proceeded to do that. They also agreed at that time to begin a new round of economic projects, economic cooperation. And it really was a kind of exciting time and it seemed that a real corner had been turned.

But, unfortunately, since that meeting, the talks between the US and North Korea over its nuclear program has really gone nowhere. There’s been very few developments in those talks, very little progress despite the fact that Trump made this trip to Korea, and actually stepped over the line dividing the two sides, and walked into North Korea for a few minutes and had a meeting with Kim Jong-un where they agreed to restart their talks.

I think the problem is that the US apparently has not backed off its demands for total denuclearization before any kind of sanctions are lifted on North Korea. As you know, North Korea is very anxious to lift at least some of these sanctions imposed in recent years, because they’re really causing some harm to the North Korean economy and to Kim Jong-un’s plan to make the economy the centerpiece of his leadership, and to make some real economic progress in raising the standards of living of the North Korean people. And so these sanctions are very critical to him in that plan. But the US has not really changed its position. That was the reason for the collapse of the talks in Hanoi in the spring, earlier in March, when basically Trump told Kim at that time that they had to give up all their nuclear weapons as well as make progress in getting rid of some of their other conventional weapons, chemical weapons, that kind of weaponry, before any sanctions were lifted.

And North Korea has responded to that by testing these ballistic missiles, which are short-range and they’re conventional weapons. I mean, North Korea does have a military. They’re designed to defend North Korea against South Korean and US forces, as well as US forces in Japan. And so these missiles clearly hit pretty much any target in South Korea as well as in Japan, where US bases that are used for intervention in Korea are based. So there have been testing. As you said, there’s been a number of tests over the last few months. Almost every week it seems there’s been a new test. There was one yesterday.

And they’ve also been complaining that the exercises that the US has been holding this month with South Korea are designed, again, to practice basically regime change in North Korea, or a sign that South Korea is not serious about its negotiations. So I think it’s a combination of the US hard line combined with the North Korean demand that there be a sort of step-by-step process, including lifting of sanctions. I think that’s the cause for this. And like I said, I think it’s really sad because I think hopes were very high a year ago that things could move in a much better and more positive direction.

GREG WILPERT: All right. Now, as you said, the talks between the North and the South seem to be completely off the table at the moment. And it seems like North Korea is suggesting that they would rather engage with Trump instead of the South. Now, why is that? I mean, obviously negotiations are needed with both sides, but why completely dismiss the South at this point?

TIM SHORROCK: Well, North Koreans sees South Korea as basically completely dependent on the US. Until the US grants some leeway in sanctions, particularly on projects that North Korea might engage with, with South Korea and allows sanctions to be lifted so some of these projects North and South Korea have been talking about like linking their railroads, opening an industrial zone that’s North of the DMZ called Kaesong Industrial Zone. But those projects cannot happen without these sanctions being lifted, or some sanctions being lifted, and the US will not do that even though South Korea has clearly been wanting to have some relief on those sanctions so that South Korea can move forward.

So they see the US as the real power behind South Korea in terms of these military and political relationships. And they see that as a barrier. And so that’s what the tension is about. I can’t really say why they’re proclaiming that the talks won’t happen. I think that’s more of a negotiating position, but it is clear that they want to have a resolution of the tensions with the US, and that has to be resolved before there can be progress between North and South.

GREG WILPERT: Now I want to turn to the US side of this relationship with North Korea. That is, most Democratic Party presidential candidates are strongly criticizing Trump over his handling of the North Korea relationship, saying that he’s being too soft on Korea basically. You recently wrote an article for this in The Nation titled “Most Dem Presidential Candidates are Attacking Trump’s Korea Policy from the Right.” What do you mean by that? And how should the policy be criticized?

TIM SHORROCK: Well, I think the policy can be criticized from the standpoint of, if you have this very hard line on sanctions and nothing can happen in terms of a US relationship with North Korea, nothing can happen in those peace talks until they give up everything, that’s a problem. And I think the hard line of the US, of Trump and Bolton, is the problem in terms of progressing in North Korea-US talks. And so I think that’s a very good point for candidates to make rather than going back to, as Joe Biden has, and some of the other candidates have, and saying that the traditional Cold War policy of the US is the one that should remain. During Obama, the policy was no talks until North Korea showed clear signs of getting rid of all its nuclear weapons. They basically said, “You have to first surrender, and then we’ll talk.” That was the position of President Obama. And that was the position of Joe Biden. And that position is the sort of old-line position that goes way back and it just won’t work. That’s not a way to progress.

And so I think going at this from a hawkish point of view and then saying, “We should put more pressure on North Korea,” in other words, up the military ante, seems pretty stupid in the sense of going out there and campaigning for actually raising tensions with North Korea. I don’t think that’s going to win anybody any votes from a practical standpoint. But it’s also very dangerous. If you escalate the situation, it’ll get worse.

So I think, really, there’s got to be a realistic position here, a realistic look at North Korea. Denuclearization should be seen as the end goal and not the immediate goal because the goal that was set out by Trump and Kim when they met in Singapore in June 2018, number one, was to rebuild and create a new relationship between the US and North Korea— have diplomatic relations, economic relations, create a new relationship. And then, number two was to support the peace process between North and South Korea. And so, from the North Korean point of view, that new relationship has not developed and the US is still sticking to its hard line. And so, that’s been a problem.

And it’s very important to understand that, while Kim Jong-un has dictatorial powers, he has more militaristic people, he has a hardline military that wants to maintain their weapons and does not want to make concessions to the United States. And so he’s got his own hardliners to worry about. And so, like we have, in the White House, we have a clash between or there’s clear differences between Trump and his hardliners like Bolton and others that are advising him. You have differences of opinion about how to approach North Korea, and then same thing with North Korea. You have hardliners who say, “Don’t give up anything. We shouldn’t give up our weapons.” And so, he’s having to convince his hardliners that North Korea will benefit out of these talks. And so I think that’s one of the reasons he’s letting the military test these weapons, which again, yes, they are ballistic missiles, but they’re short-range. They’re the kinds of missiles that pretty much any advanced military has.

GREG WILPERT: Okay. We’re going to have to leave it there. I was speaking to Tim Shorrock, a writer with The Nation and the Korea Center for Investigative Reporting. Thanks again, Tim, for having joined us today.

TIM SHORROCK: Thank you so much.

GREG WILPERT: And thank you for joining The Real News Network.

https://therealnews.com/stories/north-korea-suspends-talks-with-south-korea-because-of-u-s-sanctions
Title: John Pilger- We Are in a WAR SITUATION with China!
Post by: AGelbert on August 26, 2019, 09:52:59 pm
EP.788: John Pilger - We Are in a WAR SITUATION with China!
44,096 views

https://youtu.be/3OXTfShPMHg

goingundergroundRT

Published on Aug 21, 2019

On this season finale special episode of Going Underground, we speak to legendary journalist and film-maker John Pilger on a round-up of all the latest issues. John describes the current state of global affairs as in a state of world war, warning that the ‘coming war on China’ he warned about…has now arrived, he also discusses the Hong Kong protests and why they have grown, along with US involvement in the unrest.

He discusses the collapse of the global nuclear arms control framework with the end of the INF Treaty and the beginning of a new arms race with Russia, amid a situation where he describes it as Washington’s goal to break up the Russian Federation under Putin. He also warns of the increased risk of nuclear war as nuclear superpowers such as Pakistan and India are also entering major tensions between each other.

John Pilger also discusses his concern with John Bolton being at the ear of Donald Trump, how Brexit has created mass-distraction in the UK from the most pressing of issues at home (such as austerity and the NHS) and abroad. He slams sanctions on Venezuela and Iran and also updates us on the condition of Wikileaks founder and publisher Julian Assange, after he visited him recently in Belmarsh prison.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 17, 2019, 04:58:18 pm
Drone Attack on Saudis Might Not Lead to War, but Dangerous Nonetheless
2,960 views•Published on Sep 17, 2019

https://youtu.be/ONMw_lgJUgs

The Real News Network
350K subscribers

As'ad Abukhalil maintains that Trump may not actually want war, but the consequences of this attack could still have dangerous consequences

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.

Category News & Politics
Title: West 🦍 Targets Tehran Over Drone Armada
Post by: AGelbert on September 17, 2019, 06:09:48 pm
Bibi's Ballots: Netanyahu Misses Zionist Majority as (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) West Targets Tehran Over Drone Armada

https://youtu.be/lfXY0rzbWnk

TruNews
186K subscribers

#TruNews #IsraelElection #DroneAttack

Doc Burkhart, Edward Szall. Airdate 9/17/19
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 18, 2019, 04:59:33 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18, 2019

By WILLIAM RIVERS PITT, TRUTHOUT

Saudi 🦕 Arabia Owns the 45th Floor of Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-270117175421.png&hash=cf39e823dd9156833bfa885808a876bf518bd0d6) Tower, and It Shows

The government of Saudi Arabia owns the 45th floor of Trump Tower, and pays Donald Trump a yearly fee for the privilege. Trump's vast financial ties to that country go back decades, despite his preposterously false denials. With a crisis unfolding that could lead to war with Iran, those ties require deeper scrutiny.

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/saudi-arabia-owns-the-45th-floor-of-trump-tower-and-it-shows/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=dad40e05-03ec-497b-bc43-1b0ed0621259)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-141217224005.png)




Title: Saudi massive defense spending was crippled by supposedly unsophisticated Houthi rebels
Post by: AGelbert on September 20, 2019, 01:20:52 pm
(https://d38hokjm2drjyk.cloudfront.net/?url=ichef.bbci.co.uk%2Fnews%2F1024%2Fbranded_news%2F4A7B%2Fproduction%2F_108876091_7fc5db25-9809-4d1c-9af1-a368a4ababb8.jpg&w=300&h=190&secure=yes&token=9c95bc292425410bdfbdc99c920b56a846c47115)
🦖 Pompeo and 🦕 MBS: Hydrocarbon Hellspawn Birds of a Feather

Why would Iran raise the stakes by attacking Saudi Arabia?  (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-49760200)

Agelbert NOTE: Why indeed. Perhaps the BBC should have rephrased the question. Perhaps Iran is a Saudi scapegoat, not the issue. Perhaps the ISSUE is Saudi BULLSHIT.

Why would Saudi Arabia want to stage a false flag attack on its own refinery?
I'm glad you asked and not surprised the BBC DID NOT ask. However, the media (see: Convince people to look in the wrong direction 😈), always quick to do their ethics free wordsmith thing to herd people into seeking answers to straw man erected questions, instead of asking and answering the right questions in the first place, do not fool those in the investment community, who have to navigate through financial carnival barking legerdemain on a daily basis. 

Investment in hydrocarbons has always been a rigged EROEI SCAM based on using the biosphere as an open sewer to "externalize" pollution costs. Though Blain's Saudi Oil valuation math still excludes the "externized" pollution costs, it sees through the BS about the (convenient) "attack" on a Saudi refinery just before the Saudi ARAMCO IPO. It is refreshing to see the investment crowd's BS detectors working properly.

Fri, 09/20/2019 - 11:10

SNIPPETS:

Quote
After the Globe’s third largest defence spending state was crippled by supposedly unsophisticated Houthi rebels (with some likely assistance from Iran (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718202127.gif&hash=acc63221521ebaf3f238088fd92d1ae3a08b6e48)) when they struck his oil infrastructure, this morning the headlines are all about how MBS is now arm-twisting rich Saudi’s to buy into the discredited Aramco IPO.

Quote
However, a number of my sources suggest things look increasingly questionable in the desert kingdom. Looking at the photos of the Houthi (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-051113192052.png&hash=93c42ef9f18fc5d9da50fd91fc19f70009f95f85) drone strikes, the damage and the holes made in the gas tanks look suspiciously regular and well placed. ... ... More than a few analysts suspect the Houthis may have had inside assistance for a growing Saudi domestic insurgency.

Quote
Konadog
"More than a few analysts suspect the Houthis may have had inside assistance for a growing Saudi domestic insurgency."

A few analysts suspect the Houthis may have had Mossad assistance ...

Fixed it for ya.


Quote
Investors around the globe are increasingly disinclined to invest in the rising political risk swirling around Saudi and MBS.  They have serious doubts about any chance of objective corporate governance of Aramco. Its broadly seen as MBS’ piggy bank.  Such concerns clearly don’t worry his wealthier subjects, who are apparently delighted to have been offered the opportunity to invest upwards of $100mm. The alternative was to spend some time in basement of the luxury Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh.  As a comment in one paper suggested: it’s hard to resist an  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) equity salesman carrying a bone-saw.

MBS is determined to justify his own $2 trillion Aramco valuation. He (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718205137.gif&hash=7a79df8ecf1b29d8599c26fe550e664c6c5e24bd) and Adam (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718205808.gif&hash=5c451456a306c150d3555c49e31a2f47d6f369a9) Neumann of  WeWork really should spend some time together to discuss delusional pricing
.

Full article:

Blain: "It's A Bad Week For The Credibility Of Mohammed bin Salman" (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/blain-its-bad-week-credibility-mohammed-bin-salman?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29)
Title: "This is so obvious even Stevie Wonder can see it."
Post by: AGelbert on September 22, 2019, 06:04:39 pm
Quote
Jewel Aldridge 👍
This is so obvious even Stevie Wonder can see it.

1. Tear up the Iran nuclear deal made by Obama,
2. Set up an oil tank to be hit (maybe even hit it yourself) and blame it on Iran who didn't do it and another group in Yemen claimed responsibility
3. Ignore that the Yemen group claimed responsibility and
4. Send in U.S. troops to be put in harms way to be killed
5. Blame that on Iran to start another war.
6. (Bush Style) weapons of mass destruction.
7. Voila the Republican way to kill a mass about of people for political reasons to try and win an election.
8. Let's just hope it's a way to lose an election for the 2020 republicans.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/iran-debacle-bigger-mess-donald-trump-manage/20996/
Title: Re: "This is so obvious even Stevie Wonder can see it."
Post by: Surly1 on September 23, 2019, 08:06:01 am
Quote
Jewel Aldridge 👍
This is so obvious even Stevie Wonder can see it.

1. Tear up the Iran nuclear deal made by Obama,
2. Set up an oil tank to be hit (maybe even hit it yourself) and blame it on Iran who didn't do it and another group in Yemen claimed responsibility
3. Ignore that the Yemen group claimed responsibility and
4. Send in U.S. troops to be put in harms way to be killed
5. Blame that on Iran to start another war.
6. (Bush Style) weapons of mass destruction.
7. Voila the Republican way to kill a mass about of people for political reasons to try and win an election.
8. Let's just hope it's a way to lose an election for the 2020 republicans.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/iran-debacle-bigger-mess-donald-trump-manage/20996/

Wash, rinse, repeat.

It always works in the United States of Amnesia.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on September 27, 2019, 07:59:29 pm
Discussion on Truthdig  33 comments

By Maj. Danny Sjursen — Donald Trump’s war with Iran would be ill-advised, illegal and immoral. It would also take place with near-total absence of context.

Read more:

It Doesn't Get More Illegal Than a War With Iran (https://www.truthdig.com/articles/it-doesnt-get-more-illegal-than-a-war-with-iran/)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on October 07, 2019, 05:39:11 pm
US to let Turkish forces move into Syria, dumping Kurdish allies (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/07/us-to-let-turkish-forces-move-into-syria-abandoning-kurdish-allies)

read more: Doomstead Diner Daily 10/7 (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/general-discussion/doomstead-diner-daily/msg13889/#msg13889)

That Syria move by Trumpy is not going to go as Trumpy and his Wrecking Crew hope (i.e. distract from the Impeachment while strengthening Trump's election chances). Sure, the  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013201314.png&hash=0715eb72631014310634eb56176ff860c6d542f6) Fox News Spin Machine will try to celebrate "our troops coming home".

That is, of course, a lie. The troops are emphatically NOT coming home, but most people won't even think of questioning that lie. Those U.S. troops, positioned in the Middle East for future war crimes against Iran, will just stay out of the way while Turkey tries to wipe out the Kurds. Again, nobody in the press will even bring up the issue of real world Pentagon military logistics planning.

The "Trump loves peace" trope is useful to the (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714191329.bmp&hash=4764bfbe6bb0e11ca61102efa97a932a824f47e0) Trolls polluting Truthdig and other progressive news outlets, who will endlessly argue about how Trump is "against war". It's all BULLSHIT, but that's the way Trumpy, his Wrecking Crew and his enablers operate.

Remember when Palloy was hysterically screaming about "WWIII" back when Russia was preventing the U.S. (see: CIA bought and paid for ISIS "terrorists") from overthowing the Syria Government? I said it was all bullshit and Russia was going to be successful in preventing the USA (AND ISRAEL, of course) from taking down Syrian President Bashar Hafez al-Assad.

Obama's CIA funded ISIS murderers got their asses handed to them, as I humbly 😉 predicted.

So what happens now? It's a bit complicated but the end result of Turkey's (rather desperate, by the way) bellicose action is that the Kurds will actually gain more terrain, popularity and strength while Turkey's Trump clone legitimacy will be simultaneously severely eroded. Erdogan might even be replaced, but while that may happen within a year, I don't think it will happen during this latest Turkish attempt to engage in the genocide of the Kurds.

The reason Turkey will fail is that the Kurds in Iraq, though 🙊 U.S. media will never utter a peep about them, because this Turkish (and U. S. betrayal) action is correctly perceived by all Kurds as an existential threat, are now united with the Syrian and Turkish Kurds. The Kurds will ALL physically fight Turkey's troops.

The result of this unified Kurdish campaign (with Russia helping them through high tech troop movement surveillance, hand fired missiles and other weapons hardware) will be MORE territory governed by the Kurds in Syria AND Iraq.

Yes, the Kurds want their part of Turkey back too, but that is a bridge too far at this time.

So, though they won't officially have a country called Kurdistan, which is their ultimate goal, for all practical purposes, they will have one 👍. Russia is doing exactly the same thing the U.S. did during the Cold War. That is, they fund and arm a group with a claim to territory that was taken from them in order to prevent, in this case, expansion of U.S. influence while simultaneously increasing Russian influence. The difference in technique is that the U.S., in Russia's place, would probably want Kurdistan to be called "South Turkey", right after we dreamed up "North Turkey" (see: Korea and Viet Nam). 

The Kurds have had a legal, totally justified, gripe against Iraq and Turkish boundaries ever since the Imperialist Powers carved up the Middle East after WWI.

The Kurds KNOW that Russia isn't exactly their friend. Russia, however, will support the Kurds if they agree to be a vassal state. The U.S. (and ISRAEL) will never promote the creation of Kurdistan. Israel has only one goal when it comes to their territorial boundaries: MORE from Syria, Jordan AND Iraq. The Kurds know the score. It's realpolitic ALL THE WAY.

Here in Trumpland, the neocons (all 100% loyal to the United States of Israel) will go berserk when Turkish troops are defeated by the Kurds. Many of these neocons, like Colin Powell (see: "Get a Grip" message to fellow Republicans on their refusal to admit Trump is engaged in Impeachable High Crimes and Misdemeanors), are Republicans, as you know...

I am torn between putting up my "eating popcorn" graphic or that other one. I must admit all these Trumpian actions, faithfully following his 👹 mentor Roy Cohn's 🦍 bellicosity Mens rea Modus operandi, work quite well when you are dealing with a totally corrupted U.S. Judiciary.

Unfortunately for him, thank God, that method is doomed to total failure when applied to geopolitics.

I think the appropriate graphic here is the other one. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185040-1659929.gif&hash=0a9ca0c1f083655b821cbf024422e55e009a6d8d)

       
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-011019180735.jpeg)
Title: leaking the ugly details of Donald Trump’s bizarre Turkey-Syria stunt in real time
Post by: AGelbert on October 07, 2019, 06:44:39 pm
National security officials start leaking the ugly details of (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301216165623.jpeg&hash=1ccfee6aaf9d939cca294a849774cff11e462e59) Donald Trump’s bizarre Turkey-Syria stunt in real time


Bill Palmer | 2:58 pm EDT October 7, 2019
Palmer Report » Analysis

It’s not entirely clear why Donald Trump has suddenly decided to hand Northern Syria to Turkey. Maybe he’s putting the lives of the Kurds in jeopardy as a bargaining chip in his inevitable resignation plea deal. Maybe Turkey paid him off in a quid pro quo. Or maybe Trump is just trying to hurry up and finish himself off. One thing is clear: his own national security people aren’t having any of it, and they’re leaking things in real time.

One national security official is telling Newsweek Donald Trump got “rolled” in his deal with the head of Turkey, and that Trump “has no spine.” Someone else close to the situation is telling Politico that Trump has gone “rogue.” This all adds up to one thing.

We’re now past the point of people in the Trump administration filling out whistleblower reports about Donald Trump’s anti-American antics, and then going through the long process of waiting for their report to go through the proper channels. We’re now at the point where national security officials are taking the risk of picking up the phone, calling reporters, and spelling out precisely what Trump is doing, within hours of him having done it. These people deserve major credit for doing so.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump is taking heat from all sides for his bizarre and treacherous move on Syria and Turkey. Republican Senators including Mitt Romney and (surprisingly) Lindsey Graham :o ;D are calling it a “disaster.” It appears Trump’s stunt is only serving to accelerate his own inevitable downfall. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185040-1659929.gif&hash=0a9ca0c1f083655b821cbf024422e55e009a6d8d)


https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/leaking-security-trump-syria-donald-trump-time/21638/

Agelbert NOTE: This the the Flag that will SOON fly over the NEW country of Kurdistan: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)
(https://thekurdishproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/02/3333590254_514b4fd2dc_z.jpg)
Title: Top Military Officers Unload on Trump
Post by: Surly1 on October 07, 2019, 08:20:58 pm
This article is right on time given Trump's announcement regarding removing American troops from Syria. Since they should not have been there in the first place, this seems a good thing. Except that we will be leaving the Kurds (who have fought wars for the Empire in pursuit of their own autonomy and based on American promises) in the lurch and to the tender mercies of Erdogan. I am old enough to remember how the Americans recruited the Hmong in Vietnam and Laos, then abandoned them after their utility in the US's "secret" wars was spent.

As we speculate on next steps for what the military will do when Trump refuses to leave, I found this article instructive.

On the other hand, I wish Mad Dog Mattis was still part of Pud's cabinet, as I deemed him the most likely to empty a service revolver into that fat ****.

Top Military Officers Unload on Trump (https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/11/military-officers-trump/598360/)
The commander in chief is impulsive, disdains expertise, and gets his intelligence briefings from Fox News. What does this mean for those on the front lines?


(https://cdn.theatlantic.com/assets/media/img/2019/10/01/WEL_Bowden_TrumpGeneralsOpener/1920.jpg?1570458085)

NOVEMBER 2019 ISSUE

For most of the past two decades, American troops have been deployed all over the world—to about 150 countries. During that time, hundreds of thousands of young men and women have experienced combat, and a generation of officers have come of age dealing with the practical realities of war. They possess a deep well of knowledge and experience. For the past three years, these highly trained professionals have been commanded by Donald Trump.

To get a sense of what serving Trump has been like, I interviewed officers up and down the ranks, as well as several present and former civilian Pentagon employees. Among the officers I spoke with were four of the highest ranks—three or four stars—all recently retired. All but one served Trump directly; the other left the service shortly before Trump was inaugurated. They come from different branches of the military, but I’ll simply refer to them as “the generals.” Some spoke only off the record, some allowed what they said to be quoted without attribution, and some talked on the record.

Military officers are sworn to serve whomever voters send to the White House. Cognizant of the special authority they hold, high-level officers epitomize respect for the chain of command, and are extremely reticent about criticizing their civilian overseers. That those I spoke with made an exception in Trump’s case is telling, and much of what they told me is deeply disturbing. In 20 years of writing about the military, I have never heard officers in high positions express such alarm about a president. Trump’s pronouncements and orders have already risked catastrophic and unnecessary wars in the Middle East and Asia, and have created severe problems for field commanders engaged in combat operations. Frequently caught unawares by Trump’s statements, senior military officers have scrambled, in their aftermath, to steer the country away from tragedy. How many times can they successfully do that before faltering?

Amid threats spanning the globe, from nuclear proliferation to mined tankers in the Persian Gulf to terrorist attacks and cyberwarfare, those in command positions monitor the president’s Twitter feed like field officers scanning the horizon for enemy troop movements. A new front line in national defense has become the White House Situation Room, where the military struggles to accommodate a commander in chief who is both ignorant and capricious. In May, after months of threatening Iran, Trump ordered the carrier group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln to shift from the Mediterranean Sea to the Persian Gulf. On June 20, after an American drone was downed there, he ordered a retaliatory attack—and then called it off minutes before it was to be launched. The next day he said he was “not looking for war” and wanted to talk with Iran’s leaders, while also promising them “obliteration like you’ve never seen before” if they crossed him. He threatened North Korea with “fire and fury” and dispatched a three-aircraft-carrier flotilla to waters off the Korean peninsula—then he pivoted to friendly summits with Kim Jong Un, with whom he announced he was “in love”; canceled long-standing U.S. military exercises with South Korea; and dangled the possibility of withdrawing American forces from the country altogether. While the lovefest continues for the cameras, the U.S. has quietly uncanceled the canceled military exercises, and dropped any mention of a troop withdrawal.

Such rudderless captaincy creates the headlines Trump craves. He revels when his tweets take off. (“Boom!” he says. “Like a rocket!”) Out in the field, where combat is more than wordplay, his tweets have consequences. He is not a president who thinks through consequences—and this, the generals stressed, is not the way serious nations behave.

The generals I spoke with didn’t agree on everything, but they shared the following five characterizations of Trump’s military leadership.

I. HE DISDAINS EXPERTISE

Trump has little interest in the details of policy. He makes up his mind about a thing, and those who disagree with him—even those with manifestly more knowledge and experience—are stupid, or slow, or crazy.

As a personal quality, this can be trying; in a president, it is dangerous. Trump rejects the careful process of decision making that has long guided commanders in chief. Disdain for process might be the defining trait of his leadership. Of course, no process can guarantee good decisions—history makes that clear—but eschewing the tools available to a president is choosing ignorance. What Trump’s supporters call “the deep state” is, in the world of national security—hardly a bastion of progressive politics—a vast reservoir of knowledge and global experience that presidents ignore at their peril. The generals spoke nostalgically of the process followed by previous presidents, who solicited advice from field commanders, foreign-service and intelligence officers, and in some cases key allies before reaching decisions about military action. As different as George W. Bush and Barack Obama were in temperament and policy preferences, one general told me, they were remarkably alike in the Situation Room: Both presidents asked hard questions, wanted prevailing views challenged, insisted on a variety of options to consider, and weighed potential outcomes against broader goals. Trump doesn’t do any of that. Despite commanding the most sophisticated intelligence-gathering apparatus in the world, this president prefers to be briefed by Fox News, and then arrives at decisions without input from others.

One prominent example came on December 19, 2018, when Trump announced, via Twitter, that he was ordering all American forces in Syria home.

“We have defeated ISIS in Syria, my only reason for being there during the Trump presidency,” he tweeted. Later that day he said, “Our boys, our young women, our men, they are all coming back, and they are coming back now.”

This satisfied one of Trump’s campaign promises, and it appealed to the isolationist convictions of his core supporters. Forget the experts, forget the chain of command—they were the people who, after all, had kept American forces engaged in that part of the world for 15 bloody years without noticeably improving things. Enough was enough.

At that moment, however, American troops were in the final stages of crushing the Islamic State, which, contrary to Trump’s assertion, was collapsing but had not yet been defeated. Its brutal caliphate, which had briefly stretched from eastern Iraq to western Syria, had been painstakingly dismantled over the previous five years by an American-led global coalition, which was close to finishing the job. Now they were to stop and come home?

Here, several of the generals felt, was a textbook example of ill-informed decision making. The downsides of a withdrawal were obvious: It would create a power vacuum that would effectively cede the fractured Syrian state to Russia and Iran; it would abandon America’s local allies to an uncertain fate; and it would encourage a diminished ISIS to keep fighting. The decision—which prompted the immediate resignations of the secretary of defense, General James Mattis, and the U.S. special envoy to the mission, Brett McGurk—blindsided not only Congress and America’s allies but the person charged with actually waging the war, General Joseph Votel, the commander of U.S. Central Command. He had not been consulted.

Trump’s tweet put Votel in a difficult spot. Here was a sudden 180-degree turn in U.S. policy that severely undercut an ongoing effort. The American contingent of about 2,000 soldiers, most of them Special Forces, was coordinating with the Iraqi army; the Syrian Democratic Forces, or SDF, consisting primarily of Kurdish militias and Syrians opposed to President Bashar al-Assad; and representatives of NATO, the Arab League, and dozens of countries. This alliance had reduced ISIS’s territory to small pockets of resistance inside Syria. America’s troops were deep in the Euphrates Valley, a long way from their original bases of operation. An estimated 10,000 hard-core Islamist soldiers were fighting to the death. Months of tough combat lay ahead.

Votel’s force in Syria was relatively small, but it required a steady supply of food, ammunition, parts, and medical supplies, and regular troop rotations. The avenue for these vital conveyances—through hundreds of miles of hazardous Iraqi desert—was truck convoys, protected almost exclusively by the SDF. To protect its troops during a retreat, America could have brought in its own troops or replaced those truck convoys with airlifts, but either step would have meant suddenly escalating an engagement that the president had just pronounced finished.

For the American commander, this was a terrible logistical challenge. An orderly withdrawal of his forces would further stress supply lines, therefore necessitating the SDF’s help even more. Votel found himself in the position of having to tell his allies, in effect, We’re screwing you, but we need you now more than ever.

Field commanders are often given orders they don’t like. The military must bow to civilian rule. The generals accept and embrace that. But they also say that no careful decision-making process would have produced Trump’s abrupt about-face.

Votel decided to take an exceedingly rare step: He publicly contradicted his commander in chief. In an interview with CNN he said that no, ISIS was not yet defeated, and now was not the time to retreat. Given his responsibility to his troops and the mission, the general didn’t have much choice.

Votel held everything together. He took advantage of the good relationship he had built with the SDF to buy enough time for Trump to be confronted with the consequences of his decision. A few days later, the president backed down—while predictably refusing to admit that he had done so. American forces would stay in smaller numbers (and France and the U.K. would eventually agree to commit more troops to the effort). The 180-degree turn was converted into something more like a 90-degree one. In the end, the main effects of Trump’s tweet were bruising the trust of allies and heartening both Assad and ISIS.

Illustration featuring camo print
Illustration: Paul Spella; Nicholas Kamm; Olivier Douliery / AFP / Getty; Erik S. Lesser / AP; Kevin LaMarque / Reuters

II. HE TRUSTS ONLY HIS OWN INSTINCTS

Trump believes that his gut feelings about things are excellent, if not genius. Those around him encourage that belief, or they are fired. Winning the White House against all odds may have made it unshakable.

Decisiveness is good, the generals agreed. But making decisions without considering facts is not.

Trump has, on at least one occasion, shown the swiftness and resolution commanders respect: On April 7, 2017, he responded to a chemical-warfare attack by Assad with a missile strike on Syria’s Shayrat Airbase. But this was not a hard call. It was a onetime proportional retaliation unlikely to stir international controversy or wider repercussions. Few international incidents can be cleanly resolved by an air strike.

A case in point is the flare-up with Iran in June. The generals said Trump’s handling of it was perilous, because it could have led to a shooting war. On June 20, Iran’s air defenses shot down an American RQ-4A Global Hawk, a high-altitude surveillance drone the Iranians said had violated their airspace. The U.S. said the drone was in international airspace. (The disputed coordinates were about 12 miles apart—not a big difference for an aircraft moving hundreds of miles an hour.) In retaliation, Trump ordered a military strike on Iran—and then abruptly called it off after, he claimed, he’d been informed that it wouldkillabout 150 Iranians. One general told me this explanation is highly improbable—any careful discussion of the strike would have considered potential casualties at the outset. But whatever his reasoning, the president’s reversal occasioned such relief that it obscured the gravity of his original decision.

“How did we even get to that point?” the general asked me in astonishment. Given what a tinderbox that part of the world is, what kind of commander in chief would risk war with Iran over a drone?

Not only would a retaliatory strike have failed the litmus test of proportionality, this general said, but it would have accomplished little, escalated the dispute with Iran, and risked instigating a broad conflict. In an all-out war, the U.S. would defeat Iran’s armed forces, but not without enormous bloodshed, and not just in Iran. Iran and its proxies would launch terrorist strikes on American and allied targets throughout the Middle East and beyond. If the regime were to fall, what would come next? Who would step in to govern a Shiite Muslim nation of 82 million steeped for generations in hatred of America? The mullahs owe their power to the American overthrow of Iran’s elected government in 1953, an event widely regarded in Iran (and elsewhere) as an outrage. Conquering Americans would not be greeted by happy Persian crowds. The generals observed that those who predicted such parades in Baghdad following the ouster of Saddam Hussein instead got a decade-long bloodbath. Iran has more than twice Iraq’s population, and is a far more developed nation. The Iraq War inspired the creation of ISIS and gave renewed momentum to al‑Qaeda; imagine how war with Iran might mobilize Hezbollah, the richest and best-trained terrorist organization in the world.

Sometimes, of course, war is necessary. That’s why we maintain the most expensive and professional military in the world. But a fundamental reason to own such power is to avoid wars—especially wars that are likely to create worse problems than they solve.

General Votel, who commanded American forces in the region until he retired in March, told me that if the U.S. had carried out a retaliatory strike, “the trick for the military in this case would be to orchestrate some type of operation that would very quickly try and get us to an off-ramp—give them an off-ramp or provide us with an off-ramp—so we can get to some kind of discussion to resolve the situation.” Trump’s attack might have targeted some of the Iranian navy’s vessels and systems that threaten shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, Votel said, or it might have leveled a measured strike against the air defenses that struck the drone. Ideally it would have been followed by a pause, so diplomatic processes could kick in. The strike would have demonstrated to Iran that we have the capability and willingness to strike back if provoked, and made clear that in a serious fight, it could not prevail. But all of this presumes a sequence that would unfold in an orderly, rational way—a preposterous notion.

“This is all completely unpredictable,” Votel said. “It’s hard for me to see how it would play out. We would be compelled to leave large numbers of forces in the region as a deterrent. If you don’t have an off-ramp, you’re going to find yourself in some kind of protracted conflict.” Which is precisely the kind of scenario Trump has derided in the past. His eagerness to free the U.S. from long-term military conflicts overseas was why he made his abrupt announcement about pulling out of Syria. Evidently he didn’t fully consider where a military strike against Iran was likely to lead.

The real reason Trump reversed himself on the retaliatory strike, one general said, was not because he suddenly learned of potential casualties, but because someone, most likely General Joseph Dunford, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, aggressively confronted him with the extended implications of an attack.

“I know the chairman very well,” the general said. “He’s about as fine an officer as I have ever spent time around. I think if he felt the president was really heading in the wrong direction, he would let the president know.” He added that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo may have counseled against an attack as well. “Pompeo’s a really bright guy. I’m sure he would intervene and give the president his best advice.”

III. HE RESISTS COHERENT STRATEGY

If there is any broad logic to Trump’s behavior, it’s Keep ’em confused. He believes that unpredictability itself is a virtue.

Keeping an enemy off-balance can be a good thing, the generals agreed, so long as you are not off-balance yourself. And it’s a tactic, not a strategy. Consider Trump’s rhetorical dance with the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un. No president in modern times has made progress with North Korea. Capable of destroying Seoul within minutes of an outbreak of hostilities, Pyongyang has ignored every effort by the U.S. and its allies to deter it from building a nuclear arsenal.

Trump has gone back and forth dramatically on Kim. As a candidate in 2016, he said he would get China to make the North Korean dictator “disappear in one form or another very quickly.” Once in office, he taunted Kim, calling him “Little Rocket Man,” and suggested that the U.S. might immolate Pyongyang. Then he switched directions and orchestrated three personal meetings with Kim.

“That stuff is just crazy enough to work,” one of the generals told me with a what-the-hell? chuckle. “We’ll see what happens. If they can get back to some kind of discussion, if it can avert something, it will have been worth it. The unconventional aspect of that does have the opportunity to shake some things up.”

In the long run, however, unpredictability is a problem. Without a coherent underlying strategy, uncertainty creates confusion and increases the chance of miscalculation—and miscalculation, the generals pointed out, is what starts most wars. John F. Kennedy famously installed a direct hotline to the Kremlin in order to lower the odds of blundering into a nuclear exchange. Invading Kuwait, Saddam Hussein stumbled into a humiliating defeat in the first Gulf War—a conflict that killed more than 100,000 people—after a cascading series of miscommunications and miscalculations led to a crushing international response.

From July/August 2017: Mark Bowden on how to deal with North Korea

Unpredictability becomes an impediment to success when it interferes with orderly process. “Say you’re going to have an engagement with North Korea,” a general who served under multiple presidents told me. “At some point you should have developed a strategy that says, Here’s what we want the outcome to be. And then somebody is developing talking points. Those talking points are shared with the military, with the State Department, with the ambassador. Whatever the issue might be, before the president ever says anything, everybody should know what the talking points are going to be.” To avoid confusion and a sense of aimlessness, “everybody should have at least a general understanding of what the strategy is and what direction we’re heading in.”

Which is frequently not the case now.

“If the president says ‘Fire and brimstone’ and then two weeks later says ‘This is my best friend,’ that’s not necessarily bad—but it’s bad if the rest of the relevant people in the government responsible for executing the strategy aren’t aware that that’s the strategy,” the general said. Having a process to figure out the sequences of steps is essential. “The process tells the president what he should say. When I was working with Obama and Bush,” he continued, “before we took action, we would understand what that action was going to be, we’d have done a Q&A on how we think the international community is going to respond to that action, and we would have discussed how we’d deal with that response.”

To operate outside of an organized process, as Trump tends to, is to reel from crisis to rapprochement to crisis, generating little more than noise. This haphazard approach could lead somewhere good—but it could just as easily start a very big fire.

If the president eschews the process, this general told me, then when a challenging national-security issue arises, he won’t have information at hand about what the cascading effects of pursuing different options might be. “He’s kind of shooting blind.” Military commanders find that disconcerting.

“The process is not a panacea—Bush and Obama sometimes made bad decisions even with all the options in front of them—but it does help.”

Illustration of Trump in a blindfold
Illustration: Paul Spella; Eric Thayer / Reuters

IV. “HE IS REFLEXIVELY CONTRARY”

General H. R. McMaster, who left the White House on reasonably good terms in April 2018 after only 14 months as national security adviser, is about as can-do a professional as you will find. He appeared to take Trump seriously, and tailored his briefings to accommodate the president’s famous impatience, in order to equip him for the weighty decisions the office demands. But Trump resents advice and instruction. He likes to be agreed with. Efforts to broaden his understanding irritate him. McMaster’s tenure was bound to be short. Weeks before accepting his resignation, the president let it be known that he found McMaster’s briefings tedious and the man himself “gruff and condescending.”

Distrusting expertise, Trump has contradicted and disparaged the intelligence community and presided over a dismantling of the State Department. This has meant leaving open ambassadorships around the world, including in countries vital to American interests such as Brazil, Canada, Honduras, Japan, Jordan, Pakistan, Russia, and Ukraine. High-level foreign officers, seeing no opportunities for advancement, have been leaving.

“When you lose these diplomats and ambassadors that have all this experience, this language capability, this cultural understanding, that makes things very, very difficult for us,” one of the generals said. “And it leads to poor decisions down the line.”

Trump so resists being led that his instinct is nearly always to upend prevailing opinion.

“He is reflexively contrary,” another of the generals told me.

According to those who worked with him, McMaster avoided giving the president a single consensus option, even when one existed. He has said that he always tried to give the president room to choose. After leaving the White House, he criticized others in the national-security community for taking a different approach, accusing them of withholding information in hopes of steering Trump in the direction they preferred. McMaster has not named names, but he was most likely talking about Mattis and General John Kelly, who, after serving as Trump’s homeland-security secretary, became the president’s second chief of staff. McMaster has said that he considered such an approach tantamount to subverting the Constitution—but if his allegation is true, it shows how poorly equipped those people felt Trump was for the job. Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s report records numerous instances of civilian advisers trying to manage the president, or simply ignoring presidential directives they deemed ill-advised or illegal.

During his brief tenure on Trump’s staff, McMaster oversaw the production of a broad national-security strategy that sought to codify Trump’s “America first” worldview, placing immigration at the head of national-security concerns, right alongside nuclear proliferation and terrorist attacks. The idea was to build a coherent structure around the president’s scattershot diplomacy. Trump rhapsodized about the document at its unveiling, according to someone who was there, saying, “I love it! I love it! I want to use this all the time.”

He hasn’t. Like its author, the document has been dismissed. Those who were involved in writing it remain convinced, somewhat hopefully, that it is still helping guide policy, but John Bolton, McMaster’s successor, said scornfully—a few months before he, too, was ousted by Trump—that it is filed away somewhere, consulted by no one.

Trump is no more likely to have read the thing than he is to have written his own books. (Years ago, after he published The Art of the Deal, he asked me if I was interested in writing his next book. I declined.) Trying to shape this president’s approach to the world into a cogent philosophy is a fool’s errand. For those commanding America’s armed forces, it’s best to keep binoculars trained on his Twitter feed.

V. HE HAS A SIMPLISTIC AND ANTIQUATED NOTION OF SOLDIERING

Though he disdains expert advice, Trump reveres—perhaps fetishizes—the military. He began his presidency by stacking his administration with generals: Mattis, McMaster, Kelly, and, briefly, Michael Flynn, his first national security adviser. Appointing them so soon after their retirement from the military was a mistake, according to Don Bolduc, a retired brigadier general who is currently running as a Republican for the U.S. Senate in New Hampshire. Early on, the biggest difference Bolduc saw between the Trump administration and its predecessors, and one he felt was “going to be disruptive in the long term,” was “the significant reliance, in the Pentagon at least, on senior military leadership overriding and making less relevant our civilian oversight. That was going to be a huge problem. The secretary of defense pretty much surrounded himself with his former Marine comrades, and there was, at least from that group, a distrust of civilians that really negatively affected the Pentagon in terms of policy and strategy in Afghanistan, Syria, and Iraq, by following the same old failed operational approaches.” Trump’s reliance on military solutions is problematic because “there are limits to what the military can solve. I think initially the Trump administration held this idea that general officers somehow have all the answers to everything. I think the president discovered in short order that that’s really not the case.”

Bolduc also pointed out an unusual leadership challenge caused by having a general of McMaster’s rank serve as national security adviser—he did not retire when he assumed the post. “McMaster, for whom I have tremendous respect, came in as a three-star general. Leaving him a three-star forces him on a daily basis to have to engage with four-star generals who see his rank as beneath theirs, even though his position is much more than that.”

The problems posed by Trump’s skewed understanding of the military extend beyond bad decision making to the very culture of our armed forces: He apparently doesn’t think American soldiers accused of war crimes should be prosecuted and punished. In early May, he pardoned former Army Lieutenant Michael Behenna, who had been convicted of murdering an Iraqi prisoner. Two weeks later, he asked the Justice Department to prepare pardon materials for a number of American servicemen and contractors who were charged with murder and desecration of corpses, including Special Operations Chief Edward Gallagher, a Navy SEAL who stood accused by his own team members of fatally stabbing a teenage ISIS prisoner and shooting unarmed civilians. (He was ultimately acquitted of the murders but convicted of posing for photos with the boy’s body.) Trump subsequently chastised the military attorneys who had prosecuted Gallagher, and directed that medals awarded to them be rescinded. All of the generals agreed that interfering with the military’s efforts to police itself badly undermines command and control. When thousands of young Americans are deployed overseas with heavy weaponry, crimes and atrocities will sometimes occur. Failing to prosecute those who commit them invites behavior that shames everyone in uniform and the nation they serve.

“He doesn’t understand the warrior ethos,” one general said of the president. “The warrior ethos is important because it’s sort of a sacred covenant not just among members of the military profession, but between the profession and the society in whose name we fight and serve. The warrior ethos transcends the laws of war; it governs your behavior. The warrior ethos makes units effective because of the values of trust and self-sacrifice associated with it—but the warrior ethos also makes wars less inhumane and allows our profession to maintain our self-respect and to be respected by others. Man, if the warrior ethos gets misconstrued into ‘Kill them all …’ ” he said, trailing off. Teaching soldiers about ethical conduct in war is not just about morality: “If you treat civilians disrespectfully, you’re working for the enemy! Trump doesn’t understand.”

Having never served or been near a battlefield, several of the generals said, Trump exhibits a simplistic, badly outdated notion of soldiers as supremely “tough”—hard men asked to perform hard and sometimes ugly jobs. He also buys into a severely outdated concept of leadership. The generals, all of whom have led troops in combat, know better than most that war is hard and ugly, but their understanding of “toughness” goes well beyond the gruff stoicism of a John Wayne movie. Good judgment counts more than toughness.

Bolduc said he came up in a military where it was accepted practice for senior leaders to blame their subordinates, lose their temper, pound on desks, and threaten to throw things, and the response to that behavior was “He’s a hard-ass. Right? He’s tough. That is not leadership. You don’t get optimal performance being that way. You get optimal performance by being completely opposite of that.”

Bolduc worries that, under Trump’s command, a return to these antiquated notions of “toughness” will worsen the epidemic of PTSD plaguing soldiers who have served repeated combat tours. Senior military officers have learned much from decades of war—lessons Bolduc said are being discarded by a president whose closest brush with combat has been a movie screen.

The military is hard to change. This is bad, because it can be maddeningly slow to adapt, but also good, because it can withstand poor leadership at the top. In the most crucial areas, the generals said, the military’s experienced leaders have steered Trump away from disaster. So far.

“The hard part,” one general said, “is that he may be president for another five years.”

Title: Re: Top Military Officers Unload on 🦀 Trump
Post by: AGelbert on October 07, 2019, 09:40:50 pm
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Quote
“The hard part,” one general said, “is that he may be president for another five years.” (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg13899/#msg13899)

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Title: Did Trump Abandon Kurds To Keep His Turkish Hotel?
Post by: AGelbert on October 08, 2019, 11:06:24 pm


Did 🦀 Trump Abandon Kurds To Keep His Turkish Hotel?
5,551 views•Oct 7, 2019

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Donald Trump has withdrawn US forces in strategic places that leave our allies the Kurdistan people in danger of ISIS again

And it looks like Trump did this to protect his Turkish hotel in Istanbul!

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Title: How 🦀 Trump Set Turkish Forces Against The Kurds
Post by: AGelbert on October 09, 2019, 11:59:56 pm
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How 🦀 Trump Set Turkish Forces Against The Kurds
1,368 views•Oct 9, 2019

https://youtu.be/nMgtACcmjQI

Thom Hartmann Program
183K subscribers

Dr. Edmund Ghareeb is Adjunct Professor, Middle East history & politics-School of International Service at American University. Ghareeb was the first Mustafa Barzani Scholar of Global Kurdish Studies-Center for Global Peace, American University and a professor at George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs / Author who's books include, The Historical Dictionary of Iraq (co-authored with Beth Dougherty), The Kurdish Question in Iraq, and, The Kurdish Nationalist Movement and War in the Gulf which he co-authored with Majid Khadduri.

📕 BOOK:  Historical Dictionary of Iraq - http://www.amazon.com/dp/0810843307?t...


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Title: The Kurds are doing exactly what I thoght they would do. Good for them!
Post by: AGelbert on October 15, 2019, 08:22:45 pm
Agelbert NOTE: The Kurds (https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/91a2DeN7BHL._SX679_.jpg) are doing exactly what I thoght they would do. Good for them! (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac)

Why Hasn't Congress Taken War Powers Away From Trump? 😠
4,954 views•Oct 14, 2019

https://youtu.be/hz5Ul-8WOW8

Thom Hartmann Program
184K subscribers

Donald Trump‘s pathetic betrayal of our Kurdish allies in northern Syria highlights the importance of Congress taking seriously it’s constitutional obligation to define and authorize war.

Not only has Trump moved US forces out of the region and turned it over to Russia and Syria, but he has also moved US forces into Saudi Arabia to help them with a potential war against Iran and to support their ongoing genocidal bombing campaign of Yemen.

The Constitution gives to Congress the sole power to authorize war. Congress has not use this authority since World War II, a complete and cowardly surrender of their own power for nearly four generations.

It’s time for Congress to seriously debate what’s going on in the Middle East and explicitly authorize or de-authorize our participation in warfare in the region.

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Title: Well that didn’t last long
Post by: AGelbert on October 18, 2019, 03:32:16 pm
12:20 pm EDT October 18, 2019

Quote
Chris Cuddy 👍

Erdogan to Trump: I'll give the Kurds 120 hours to leave.
Erdogan to Turkish Army: wait 12 hours for them to leave their shelters, then slaughter them on the roads.
https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/well-that-didnt-last-long/22055/
Title: 🦀 Trump suffers rare international rebuke in a withering statement from multiple European countries
Post by: AGelbert on October 18, 2019, 10:13:28 pm
🦀 Trump suffers rare international rebuke (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190419235756.png&hash=ddd7a71acf6ff0420a63e797c27fdcad27734e3e) in a withering statement from multiple European countries 👍

Source: rawraw story

Published 6 hours ago on October 18, 2019

Leaders from Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the European Parliament, and the United States joined together on Friday to issue a damning statement condemning President Donald Trump and Turkey for the ongoing atrocities in northern Syria.

In the statement, the chairs of foreign affairs committees from each governing body said they consider Turkey’s recent incursion into Syria targeting the Kurdish people to be “military aggression and a violation of international law.”

They continued: “The Turkish offensive is causing suffering for the local people who are forced to flee and a further instability in Syria and the neighboring region.”

After effectively giving the green light to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to invade the region after withdrawing American troops more than a week ago, President Donald Trump has tried to defend his decision and claim that he is working with Turkey to resolve the conflict. But observers argued that the agreement the Trump administration reached with Erdogan on Thursday, which Vice President Mike Pence called a “ceasefire,” was in fact just a complete capitulation to Turkey’s wishes and a betrayal of the Kurds.......................................

Read more: https://www.rawstory.com/2019/10/trump-suffers-rare-international-rebuke-in-a-withering-statement-from-multiple-european-countries/
Title: Susan Rice just dropped the hammer on Donald Trump
Post by: AGelbert on October 19, 2019, 05:35:46 pm
Susan Rice just dropped the hammer on 🦀 Donald Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-191019170902.png)

Bill Palmer | 10:00 am EDT October 19, 2019
Palmer Report » Analysis

Last night Donald Trump briefly stepped away from his deranged late night ranting about Nancy Pelosi and Adam Schiff so he could focus his rage elsewhere. Trump attacked Obama-era National Security Advisor Susan Rice shortly after she appeared on the Bill Maher show, which tells you something about Trump’s TV viewing habits last night. Trump’s attack on Rice was somewhat bizarre to begin with, and let’s just say that Rice managed to quickly get the best of him in response.

For reference, Donald Trump posted this tweet late last night: “Susan Rice, who was a disaster to President Obama as National Security Advisor, is now telling us her opinion on what to do in Syria. Remember RED LINE IN THE SAND? That was Obama. Millions killed! No thanks Susan, you were a disaster.” None of that is accurate, but with Trump, it never is. The key is that he got Rice’s attention. She replied on Twitter with this:

Then why did you come up and hug me at 2015 WHCD when I’d never met you (which was totally gross) and whisper in my ear that I had been “very unfairly treated” over Benghazi and “was doing a great job for the country”?

Wow. So not only has Donald Trump done a complete one-eighty when it comes to what he thought of the job Susan Rice did, it turns out he did this creepy weird thing to her at the White House Correspondents’ Dinner. Then again we’re not surprised, because Trump is in fact a creepy weirdo.

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/susan-rice-dropped-donald-trump/22090/
Title: No! Trade Won't Stop War
Post by: AGelbert on October 22, 2019, 08:32:03 pm
📢 No! Trade Won't Stop War
1,261 views•Oct 22, 2019

https://youtu.be/NE0T7VfNFR8

Thom Hartmann Program
187K subscribers

The right-wing wants you to think that trade can stop a war but the truth is only the people can do that.

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Thom Hartmann breaks down an insidious neoliberal myth that free trade can stop a war between two countries and the Democratic Peace Theory.

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Title: ... Donald 🦀 Trump was lying straight to their angry white faces as they lapped it up like dogs
Post by: AGelbert on October 24, 2019, 05:32:22 pm
Agelbert NOTE: Told ya.

🦀 Trump Brings the Troops Home... to Iraq

WILLIAM RIVERS PITT, TRUTHOUT

Leave aside the historically bizarre tableau -- the same GOP base that helped cheerlead Bush into his 2003 invasion of Iraq is now applauding the "Bring the Troops Home" slogan of the antiwar left -- and focus on the fact that Trump is lying straight to their angry white faces. Because Trump is actually bringing the troops home... to Iraq, where they've been for a very long time.

Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/trump-brings-the-troops-home-to-iraq/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=f271ad7d-7db1-487f-8ec0-fae7c7ed494b)
Title: MIGA❓
Post by: AGelbert on October 27, 2019, 08:43:08 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.directzine4dems.com%2F1103-toons%2Fmake_isis_great_again.jpg&hash=94a9d10671e8b75271c15d56a9783b55bdcec509)
Title: Even Russia says Donald Trump is lying about Baghdadi
Post by: AGelbert on October 27, 2019, 09:57:07 pm
Even Russia says Donald Trump (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-080419191019.png&hash=a449294ee6fe2dfdea44c1c501f4439b9ac69c26) is lying about Baghdadi (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132401-16872027.gif&hash=bba6aaee2cf1cdc8a213cd8f2d2c6a9bcd8c3f3a) 

Bill Palmer | 5:45 pm EDT October 27, 2019
Palmer Report » Analysis

When the news surfaced that Donald Trump had ordered a U.S. military operation that had taken out ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, it raised a rather obvious question: how can you kill a guy who’s already been dead for two years? Now even Russia is directly accusing the Trump regime of having faked the whole thing.

Numerous media outlets reported in 2017 that Baghdadi had been killed in a bombing. In the two years since, no one had heard a peep from Baghdadi, and it was clear that he wasn’t running ISIS on any level, seemingly giving credence to the reports that he was deceased. Terrorist leaders don’t just retire from their terrorist group, right?

After Trump made his announcement today, and inexplicably thanked Russia for its supposed role in the raid, Russia fired back and said that it had no idea what Trump was talking about. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-16771578.gif&hash=60d3e7427efc846ae1733eff0803c25b5d5b7862) The Russian Defense Ministry even went so far as to mock (https://www.thedailybeast.com/russia-trumps-baghdadi-victory-lap-is-nothing-but-propaganda?via=ios) Trump for making “yet another” claim that Baghdadi had been killed. :D

Based on its track record, we have no reason to believe anything that Russia is saying about this raid. But based on his track record, we have no reason to believe anything that Donald Trump is saying about the raid either. If Russia isn’t willing to back up the story being told by its own puppet Trump, it suggests that Russia expects Trump’s story to unravel soon, and Russia doesn’t want to get stuck looking foolish when it does. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3)

https://www.palmerreport.com/analysis/even-russia-says-donald-trump-is-lying-about-baghdadi/22393/
Title: "We Are Going To War": Has The Final Apocalyptic Conflict Between Israel And Her Enemies Now Begun?
Post by: AGelbert on November 13, 2019, 03:15:06 pm
(https://www.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/Fighter-Plane-Public-Domain.jpg?itok=e-O7bJGF)

"We Are Going To War": Has The Final Apocalyptic Conflict Between Israel And Her Enemies Now Begun? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-150715183719.png&hash=7b222546f30a032efc31223d85eea0535ed42a49)

Wed, 11/13/2019 - 14:24

Authored by Michael Snyder via The End of The American Dream blog,

On Tuesday, terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in retaliation for Israel’s targeted killing of the senior commander of Islamic Jihad in Gaza.  Many of the rockets were intercepted by the Iron Dome defense system, but quite a few got through, and some even reached as far as Tel Aviv.

Following those rocket attacks, Israeli tanks and aircraft pounded Islamic Jihad positions in the Gaza Strip, and Israeli officials are pledging to continue to respond to any additional attacks.  Unfortunately, it certainly sounds like more attacks are coming.  According to Islamic Jihad’s Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala, his organization is “going to war” with Israel.  The following comes from the Times of Israel…

Quote
“We are going to war. [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu has crossed all the red lines in assassinating Al-Quds Brigades Commander Baha Abu al-Ata. We will respond forcefully,” PIJ Secretary-General Ziad al-Nakhala told the Dar al-Hayat Arabic-language news site.

Israeli officials felt that they had no choice but to kill Baha Abu al-Ata once they had a clear opportunity to do so.  According to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he was an “archterrorist” and was “the main instigator of terrorism from the Gaza Strip”.  The Israeli people are fed up with the endless rocket attacks, and so it makes sense that Israel would target the man that initiated so many of those attacks.

But to Islamic Jihad, Baha Abu al-Ata was a greatly beloved hero, and his death sent shockwaves throughout the entire Middle East.  Once news of his death got out, terrorists in Gaza fired “more than 200 rockets into Israel”…

Quote
Islamic militants in the Gaza Strip sent a barrage of more than 200 rockets into Israel Tuesday and vowed further revenge after the Israeli military carried out a pair of targeted airstrikes on senior Islamic Jihad commanders, killing one in Gaza and missing the second in Syria.

An Israeli airstrike killed Baha Abu al-Ata, 42, and his wife as they slept in their home in eastern Gaza Tuesday, Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokesman Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said. Conricus added that Abu al-Ata was responsible for a number of recent rocket attacks on southern Israel and claimed he was actively planning new attacks.

In response to those rocket attacks, IDF tanks and planes absolutely pummeled Islamic Jihad military outposts…

Quote
Israeli tanks attacked three Islamic Jihad military posts in the Gaza Strip Tuesday afternoon.

An IDF spokesperson stated: “A short while ago, IDF tanks targeted three PIJ military posts in the Gaza Strip.”

The Israeli Air Force has also bombed numerous Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza in response to the firing of dozens of rockets by the terrorist organization.

And IDF spokesperson Hidai Zilberman told the press that the Israelis are “prepared for several days of battle” if it comes to that.

We shall see what happens, but it appears that we may be looking at a conflict that will last a whole lot longer that just a few days.

Islamic Jihad is promising a campaign of revenge that will “have no borders”, and it is being reported that Israel’s enemies are considering “opening a second or third front in the north”…

Quote
DEBKAfile’s sources report that when Israel’s security cabinet was convening in Tel Aviv on Tuesday morning, so too were senior officials in Tehran, Damascus and Beirut. They were discussing whether to punish Israel by opening a second or third front in the north.

The Palestinian Jihad also maintains armed forces in Syria and Lebanon, who may be conscripted in both countries for strikes against northern and central Israel in solidarity with their brothers in Gaza. The Gaza headquarters initially reacted to the death of its leader by announcing that their retaliation “would have no borders.” Then, after firing some 50 rockets, Jihad stated that as yet “unprecedented retaliation” was still to come, suggesting that Israel faced attacks from additional borders.

Of course every time Israel’s enemies escalate the conflict, Israel is going to hit back even harder.

And if this conflict escalates enough, it could pull in the Iranians and all of their close allies in the region.  In recent years, Islamic Jihad has actually forged very close ties with Tehran.  The following comes from the Jerusalem Post…

Quote
PIJ is important for Iran because Tehran’s regime often argues that it is the center of “resistance” against Israel and the US. In order to weave a narrative of “resistance,” it must show that it is actually doing something against Israel. Since Iran doesn’t like to sacrifice its own Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps members, it works through other groups. In Lebanon it supplies Hezbollah with precision guidance for its rocket arsenal; in Gaza it has relations with PIJ and also with Hamas.

At some point, Israel will find itself fighting against Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah and Iran all at the same time.

Could it be possible that we are right on the precipice of that war?

Without a doubt, many on both sides of the conflict are eager to achieve final victory.  For example, on Tuesday one activist group in Israel was openly calling for war with Hamas…

Quote
The group’s activists were seen hanging signs around the country reading, “Bibi – Give Us The Order!”

“The time has come for Israel to achieve victory over Hamas and all the terror organizations in Gaza,” said Im Tirtzu CEO Matan Peleg. “Peace is made with defeated enemies, and that’s the only way to restore quiet to the south. Today’s assassination of a senior Gazan terrorist was a step in the right direction, and now we need to take the next step and defeat the terror in Gaza once and for all.”

If rockets were constantly being fired at my family and friends, I think that my patience would be gone too.

There simply is not going to be lasting peace in the region as long as the status quo exists.  Islamic Jihad, Hamas, Hezbollah and the Iranian government have all pledged to permanently wipe Israel off the map, and the Israelis are going to respond to every attack against them by hitting back extremely hard.

Whether it happens today, tomorrow or at some future time, the truth is that a major war is coming to the Middle East.

And once that war happens, none of our lives will ever be the same again.

https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/we-are-going-war-has-final-apocalyptic-conflict-between-israel-and-her-enemies-now
Title: How OAS Deception Helped the Coup in Bolivia
Post by: AGelbert on November 19, 2019, 02:29:30 pm
How OAS Deception Helped the Coup in Bolivia
November 19, 2019

When the Organization of American States misled everyone into thinking that Bolivia's presidential elections were fraudulent, it made the coup against Evo Morales possible, says CEPR's Mark Weisbrot.

https://youtu.be/5XUViFzuvkE

https://therealnews.com/stories/how-oas-deception-helped-coup-in-bolivia
Title: 🚩 Iran Warns U.S. & Allies: "We Will Destroy You" (w/ Jamal Abdi)
Post by: AGelbert on November 27, 2019, 07:17:10 pm
🚩 Iran Warns U.S. & Allies: "We Will Destroy You" (w/ Jamal Abdi)
6,165 views•Nov 26, 2019

https://youtu.be/F2qtdOTEmM8

Thom Hartmann Program
194K subscribers

After suffering from Trump's massive sanctions and internal protests, Iran warns the United States to back off or be destroyed.
 
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

The protests and reactions from the government in Iran in recent weeks have become dangerous for Iranians. This is a combustible situation, not helped by rhetoric from Donald Trump.

Sanctions against Iran are creating enemies rather than bringing Iran into some form of democratic governance.

Jamal Abdi joined Thom to discuss the latest from Iran.

🔥 WATCH NEXT: IRAN: Are We "Locked & Loaded"?
https://youtu.be/d0NObxuFH5c

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: The Cost Of The Global War On Terror: $6.4 trillion And 801,000 ☠️ Lives
Post by: AGelbert on November 27, 2019, 07:58:39 pm
(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/oztYq5AbpB26Ma6wSysP0TG81oB4JfFRUar2JRIZG865ap6Q4b5cyLf9iyb2wUDtIXTgjcgYmiFWfRQU4sgizDoj5REMoGoO9nNxdCAdl3rI2F9XvUKtLcrmm6GtPnS9AnQ3T6CRq9TFK4fRbFE3wAuCnYvZBQV2zmQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://gallery.mailchimp.com/33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413/images/0bb0ece7-9ce7-4ab4-9a36-6f3ca6a7db37.png)
(https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2017/12/1googlenotice.png)


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fs3.amazonaws.com%2Frapgenius%2F1375371542_tumblr_m7jevgcaFm1qzqdem.gif&hash=1a2fe8d9567770e89661ad82a4e03b115e0f5358) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-140415130805.png&hash=23d2e6dc6311a26c399bf0cb60868bcff2781a58) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418193910.gif&hash=633dd399cd6006279afd7efb5ef953673b96bd78)

November 25, 2019

The Cost Of The Global War On Terror: $6.4 trillion And 801,000 ☠️ Lives (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-311013200859.png&hash=a7aaaa9f04c1e3e2c948723b5f8c13fe814dacd4)

Quote
“If you count all parts of the federal budget that are military related — including the nuclear weapons budget, the budget for fuel for military vehicles and aircraft, funds for veteran care — it makes up two thirds of the federal budget, and it’s inching toward three quarters,” Lutz said. “I don’t think most people realize that, but it’s important to know. Policymakers are concerned that the Pentagon’s increased spending is crowding out other national purposes that aren’t war.

By Brown University. Providence, R.I. — Nearly two decades after New York’s Twin Towers fell on 9/11, the estimated cost of America’s counterterrorism efforts stands at $6.4 trillion. That’s according to a Nov. 13 report released by the Costs of War project based at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University.

According to the report, since late 2001, the United States has appropriated and is obligated to spend $6.4 trillion on counterterrorism efforts through the end of 2020. -more- (https://popularresistance.org/the-cost-of-the-global-war-on-terror-6-4-trillion-and-801000-lives/) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on December 03, 2019, 09:13:44 am
(https://scontent.forf1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/78043191_494833024463132_3514835844445765632_o.jpg?_nc_cat=105&_nc_eui2=AeHLcwv9i6aE7d9uQaGJR6BjPSGETYqvQ_so_57RxI-27aIRIw3DpCx0n81IvmYMgAzEX-R3EviHUBS-WOPnDHllL7rXrysMujjzmAuwpdxfdQ&_nc_ohc=fYAt-Z_hIygAQkx4oIFj3QAx7XwOkJC8VdGbX5gs1lLAbJVKNbAQO2dYg&_nc_ht=scontent.forf1-1.fna&oh=461ea18df58d4e9f15fc8107525ef95b&oe=5E8278EC)
Title: "... , And that has made all the difference."
Post by: AGelbert on December 03, 2019, 02:42:00 pm
Robert Frost wrote the folllowing poem to his writer friend Edward Thomas as a joke.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-021219141949.png)

The Road Not Taken

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves, no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Now that you have read the poem, please note the following relevant quote by the poem's author:
Quote
“I’m never more serious than when joking.” -- Robert Frost

Title: "If a war breaks out, the blame lies squarely with this disastrous policy and its proponents."
Post by: AGelbert on January 03, 2020, 01:26:58 pm
Excellent comment:
Quote
Canadian Gal 👍

 "Whatever happens next, understand and never stop pointing out that Donald Trump walked into office with no crisis with Iran," said Stephen Miles, executive director of (https://winwithoutwar.org/about/who-we-are/) (https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/Ah8Y0jSCvrK2PfYb8TEFWgiW7FdMJ5ViQirp0colh1sBY0l5MracKeMwc0NUSdWnvGsNvlC0M8ecC42xC6cfBcS6kAUlPk48clOJUluTuXRUvbCSQc1ClI4o=s0-d-e1-ft#https://s3.amazonaws.com/aktest-2011/images/win-without-war-logo.png). "🦀 He then filled his cabinet with warmongers, walked away from a multilateral diplomatic accord, and purposefully engaged in 'maximum pressure.'🦀 He owns this."

Yup, totally, and I've said all that from the start.

" "🦀 Trump's Iran policy has been seeking to incite war with Iran since he reneged on the nuclear deal in May 2018," said Sina Toossi, senior research analyst with the National Iranian American Council. "If a war breaks out, the blame lies squarely with this disastrous policy and its proponents."

Yup, totally, and the bigger question is, if Trump finally gets his wet dream (a big war with his name on it that he can use to boost defense spending and steel production/manufacturing in the US) why should any country but the US pay to accomplish any of that?

But you can bet your boots that if Trump's antics cause a war to break out, he and his minions will be on the doorsteps of all the US allies Trump has spent most of the past 3 years shitting on, begging for them to pony up more money to warmonger with so that Trump's real goals can be inadvertently paid for.

I sincerely hope US "allies" tell Trump the US can unilaterally finish what he unilaterally started.

Associated article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

(https://dingo.care2.com/c2p/GlobalZero/GZ500x600.png)

Fri, 01/03/2020 - 11:15

'World War III' Is Trending On Twitter As Iran 🦍 Hawks Rejoice (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/world-war-iii-trending-twitter-iran-hawks-rejoice?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29)

Agelbert NOTE:
  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b) There is only one solution available to the American public to solve the (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301216165623.jpeg&hash=1ccfee6aaf9d939cca294a849774cff11e462e59) Trump Problem:


(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-020120191145.jpeg)

Quote
Either make the tree good, and his fruit good; or else make the tree corrupt, and his fruit corrupt: for the tree is known by his fruit.

O generation of vipers, how can ye, being evil, speak good things? for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh. A good man out of the good treasure of the heart bringeth forth good things: and an evil man out of the evil treasure bringeth forth evil things.

But I say unto you, That every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. For by thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned. -- Matthew 12:33-37 King James Version (KJV)
Title: Does this mean there will be conflict in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and what
Post by: AGelbert on January 03, 2020, 09:47:24 pm
Iran Vows Severe Revenge after Qasem Soleimani (w/ Jamal Abdi)
3,104 views•Jan 3, 2020

https://youtu.be/eijZjCCKAmg

Thom Hartmann Program
201K subscribers

General Qasem Soleimani, head of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards' elite Quds Force, has been killed by US forces in Baghdad Iraq on the orders of Donald Trump. Iran vows severe revenge, retaliation and harsh vengeance against the United States.

🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

Is this the start of Donald Trump’s re-election war?

Does this mean there will be conflict in the Middle East between Iran and the United States and what form might that take? And what of Iraq?

Iraqi Shia commander Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis in the same airstrike

To unpack what happened and the future, Jamal Abdi (Pres. National Iranian American Council) joined Thom on US Iran tensions.

Was Trump right to attack Qasem Soleimani? What do you think?

🔥 WATCH NEXT: IRAN: Are We "Locked & Loaded"?

https://youtu.be/d0NObxuFH5c

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: Iraqi Protesters Storm the American Embassy in Baghdad -- But There's More to the Story
Post by: AGelbert on January 03, 2020, 10:18:05 pm
Iraqi Protesters Storm the American Embassy in Baghdad (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190119153601.gif&hash=336ba78f7f18ff5829ef3722f89b4258d2315284) -- But There's More to the Story
8,803 views•Jan 3, 2020

https://youtu.be/6vpk0A5D2v4

The Real News Network
374K subscribers

Tens of thousands of people in Iraq are demonstrating against the government there, the United States, and Iran. York University's Thabit Abdullah explains that at the heart of the story is Iraq torn asunder by the 🦍 United States.

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category News & Politics
Title: BreakingNews: Fresh US airstrike 💥 hits PMU convoy
Post by: AGelbert on January 03, 2020, 11:11:29 pm
PressTV

News   /   Iraq   /  BreakingNews

No let-up in terror: Fresh US airstrike 💥 hits PMU convoy

Friday, 03 January 2020 11:34 PM  [ Last Update: Saturday, 04 January 2020 2:27 AM ]

SNIPPET:

Shortly after the United States’ assassination of a senior Iranian commander in Baghdad, a fresh American airstrike hits a convoy belonging to Iraq’s anti-terror fighters north of the Arab country’s capital, reportedly killing six people.

The strike came almost exactly 24 hours after the Friday attacks that martyred Lieutenant General Qassem Soleimani, the commander of the Quds Force of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC), and Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, the second-in-command of Iraq's Popular Mobilization Units (PMU), as they were travelling on the Baghdad International Airport road.

Read more:👀
https://www.presstv.com/Detail/2020/01/03/615302/Iraq-airstrikes-Popular-Mobilization-Units-Baghdad

(https://cdn.presstv.com/photo/20200104/f2eb791e-a693-4ef8-9fae-3dbe5974ad15.jpg)


Title: The 2003 Iraq Occupation marked the moment when the U.S. lost control of its own bloody chess game.
Post by: AGelbert on January 04, 2020, 02:54:23 pm
Iran Cables (https://theintercept.com/series/iran-cables/)

Quote
For more than six decades, the U.S. has played a central role in fomenting disasters that have destroyed the lives of entire generations in Iraq and Iran. Any criticisms of Iran’s role today cannot efface this ugly record.

I'm reading the Iran Cables, a series of articles published by the Intercept. The NYT is publishing them too, though that lowers their value for me, since the NYT has never seen a war for empire they did not cheerlead with lots of alarmist bulllshit plus doubletalk and lies about "freedom and democracy". As usual, after the money for the MIC has been spent, the NYT comes back years or decades later with some truth to preserve their credibility. Unlike the NYT, The Intercept has, so far, stuck to the unvarnished truth, so I decided to read the Iran Cables.

The Iran Cables cover Iranian Intelligence operations (of which there are TWO factions, not one) in Iraq. 🦍 U.S. actions (perpetrated almost exclusively for control of Iraqi oil) in Iraq from 1963 😲 to the present are covered by the reporters writing about the several hundred cables. The Iran Cables detail MOIS (Ministry of Intelligence of the Islamic Republic of Iran) operations in Iraq from late 2013 through early 2015 and include reports from Iranian assets at the highest levels of the Iraqi government.

The "Iran Cables" (https://theintercept.com/series/iran-cables/)articles cover a lot of territory, but any serious student of history should read them. I find them to be credible.

Here's a snippet from one the the Iran Cables that shows why the Neocons have never wanted to do anything but to divide, conquer and destroy, while we-the-people are coerced to fund this evil, counterproductive CRAP:

Quote
“The U.S. can overthrow Saddam Hussein,” said Aziz, an Iraqi Christian and one of the most senior figures in Saddam’s government. “You can destroy the Baath Party and secular Arab nationalism.” But, he warned, “America will open a Pandora’s box that it will never be able to close.”

A LITTLE OVER a decade before 😈 George W. Bush decided to overthrow the Iraqi government, his father’s administration had taken a very different path. After mercilessly destroying Iraq’s civilian and military infrastructure in a bombing campaign during the 1991 Gulf War, George H.W. Bush was persuaded that it would be too dangerous to march on Baghdad. Not because of the potential human costs, or deaths of U.S. soldiers in combat, but because Saddam was a known quantity who had already proven valuable in the 1980s when he attacked Iran and triggered the brutal Iran-Iraq War. During that eight-year conflict, the U.S. armed both countries but overwhelmingly favored Baghdad. More than a million people died in trench warfare reminiscent of World War I. Henry Kissinger put a fine point on the U.S. strategy in that war when he quipped that it is “a shame there can only be one loser.”

Even after the war had ended, the American fear of Iran outweighed any appetite for regime change in Iraq. So Saddam remained.

Bush’s 🦍 son took a different view. In the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks, high-ranking figures in his administration began falsely connecting Saddam’s regime to Al Qaeda. In reality, the religious extremists were mortal enemies of the Baathists. But the process for Saddam’s removal had already been determined by neoconservatives who had been bent on waging war against Iraq years before 9/11.

Full article:

THE CHANGING OF THE OVERLORDS From the Rubble of the U.S. War in Iraq, Iran Built a New Order (https://theintercept.com/2019/11/18/us-iraq-invasion-iran/)

Surly,
Your daily news roundup is always comprehensive, as well as being concise, but your January 04, 2020 Doomstead Diner Daily (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/general-discussion/doomstead-diner-daily/msg15060/#msg15060) news roundup is a particularly important read for those who care about the unvarnished TRUTH. 🦉

Your headlines about Iran today, which shed light on how they may react to the latest (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-301216165623.jpeg&hash=1ccfee6aaf9d939cca294a849774cff11e462e59) Trump Fascists 'R' US murder and mayhem, are better understood when the information in the Iran Cables is digested.

Title: What is she afraid of? Emma’s back to school nightmare
Post by: AGelbert on January 05, 2020, 02:57:02 pm
What is she afraid of? Emma’s back to school nightmare
1,886 views•Sep 10, 2019

https://youtu.be/yXfqSb81CtM

Save the Children USA
17.1K subscribers

No child should go #BackToSchool in fear – but Emma has more reasons than most. This back-to-school season, many parents are packing bags, lunchboxes and sports gear, as they get their kids ready for school every morning. But for too many children, going back to school means surviving in a war zone. Watch now as Emma prepares for her first day back – haunted by the imagination of what war is like for children like her around the world. For kids caught in conflict, war leaves wounds we cannot see. But you can change this story. Take action now to Stop the War on Children: www.stopwaronchildren.org.
➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
About Save the Children: Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
 
Stay current with Save the Children:
Voices from the Field blog: http://blog.savethechildren.org
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/savethechildren
Twitter: https://twitter.com/savethechildren
Instagram: https://instagram.com/savethechildren
 
For more about Save the Children’s work, visit: https://www.savethechildren.org

Category Nonprofits & Activism
Title: corporate media and many politicians are spreading lies to justify the murders and further aggressio
Post by: AGelbert on January 05, 2020, 11:49:29 pm
By Kevin Zeese and Margaret Flowers, Popular Resistance.

January 5, 2020 | , NEWSLETTER (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818184310-1635923.gif&hash=5e2530db4748ed6c7163e1d478fdfa3cd1108668)

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Popular Resistance Newsletter - The anti-war movement is fired up!   (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-060518153110.png&hash=39d587c31b7f7e66b30d7e59bb560e2ad0662eee) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b)  (https://popularresistance.org/reckless-us-actions-fire-up-the-antiwar-movement/)

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Title: Iraqi PM reveals Soleimani was on peace mission when assassinated, exploding Trump’s lie
Post by: Surly1 on January 07, 2020, 06:43:26 am
Iraqi PM reveals Soleimani was on peace mission when assassinated, exploding Trump’s lie of ‘imminent attacks’ (https://thegrayzone.com/2020/01/06/soleimani-peace-mission-assassinated-trump-lie-imminent-attacks/?fbclid=IwAR3S65LMM5M-PlncNd7oqckrjaSAzSZbTzfQZwEPYt4Nvmm6rrRsmnbH4ak)

(https://i0.wp.com/thegrayzone.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/01/trump-assassination-qassem-soleimani-iraq.jpg?zoom=2&resize=550%2C293&ssl=1)

The Trump administration claimed Iranian general Qasem Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on US interests when it assassinated him. That lie was just destroyed, but not before countless corporate media outlets transmitted it to the public.

By Max Blumenthal

Desperate to justify the US drone assassination of Iranian Major General Qasem Soleimani, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo insisted that Washington had made an “intelligence-based assessment” that Soleimani was “actively planning in the region” to attack American interests before he was killed.

President Donald Trump justified his fateful decision to kill the Iranian general in even more explicit language, declaring that Soleimani was planning “imminent attacks” on US diplomatic facilities and personnel across the Middle East.

“We took action last night to stop a war,” Trump claimed. “We did not take action to start a war.”

Trump’s dubious rationale for an indisputably criminal assassination has been repeated widely across corporate media networks, and often without any skepticism or debate.

At a January 3 State Department briefing, where reporters finally got the chance to demand evidence for the claim of an “imminent” threat, one US official erupted in anger.

“Jesus, do we have to explain why we do these things?” he barked at the press.

Two days later, when Iraqi Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi addressed his country’s parliament, Trump’s justification for killing Soleimani was exposed as a cynical lie.

According to Abdul-Mahdi, he had planned to meet Soleimani on the morning the general was killed to discuss a diplomatic rapproachment that Iraq was brokering between Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Abdul-Mahdi said that Trump personally thanked him for the efforts, even as he was planning the hit on Soleimani – thus creating the impression that the Iranian general was safe to travel to Baghdad.


But when Trump and his administration attempt to lie the public into war against a designated evildoer, a swath of the corporate media responds with reflexive trust, then shrugs when the lie is exposed in broad daylight.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on January 07, 2020, 06:44:41 am
Interesting Twitter thread I cam across by one Jared Yates Sexton. Unwound by Thread Reader.
https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1213842821368680448.html

The evangelicals I'm talking to see the escalation of Iran as fulfillment of End Days prophecy, cementing their perception of Trump as a faulty messiah used by God. Many are bragging openly about their foresight in prepping, others are purchasing more weapons.

Seems as good a time as any to remind everyone of what I call the Cult of the Shining City, which is white identity Christianity that blends segregationism, prosperity gospel, and nationalistic occultism that originated as a response to the Civil Rights Movement.

As Civil Rights leaders used Christianity as a means to push for equality, white evangelicals responded by changing the gospel to focusing on wealth and power. Trump is part of this tradition and the Cult of the Shining City sees him as an embodiment of their teachings.

In the 1980s, with the rise of Reaganism and burgeoning millennial angst, the Cult of the Shining City was obsessed with apocalyptic conspiracy theories that focused on minorities, Satan, and the New World Order. They call it the Deep State now.

New World Order/Deep State conspiracy theories are all anti-Semitic and white supremacist based. It's about other groups coming together to take power from the white race. Trump, because of his adherence to the prosperity gospel and white supremacy, is a natural leader for them.

Whether Trump is aware of the Cult of the Shining City or not, it seems like many actions have been taken to establish himself as a faulty messiah, including the Israeli embassy. This Iran move is tinged in it, and the members see it as a step toward a final, apocalyptic showdown
 
Something to think about: Cult of the Shining City members look for coincidences and timing to show meaning. They see the impeachment and the Iran escalation as inextricably linked. It's Good vs. Evil, God vs. Satan. Trump, here, is the proxy.

It's something to remember that they're not looking for peace. The Cult of the Shining City is constantly awaiting war on a scale we've never seen. World ending destruction. They're pushing for this to not only turn to war but to destroy literally everything. That's the energy.

The unfortunate truth is that the Cult of the Shining City is just another side of the same coin as death cults like ISIS. We have people on both sides looking for the exact same war, fighting over who Jesus will fight for. The rest of us, unfortunately, are stuck in the middle.
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on January 07, 2020, 09:01:07 am
(https://i.redd.it/s9kdx5ki7t841.png)
Title: Seven Things You Should Know About Donald Trump and Iran
Post by: AGelbert on January 07, 2020, 03:42:45 pm
Seven Things You Should Know About 🦀 Donald Trump and Iran
2,074 views•Premiered 35 minutes ago

https://youtu.be/0_RnLEd9jU0

The Intercept
134K subscribers

President Trump kicked off 2020 by ordering the assassination of Qassim Suleimani, the top Iranian general who was considered to be the second most important man in Iran.

Everyone’s worried what happens next, what kind of retaliation is coming America’s way, and whether we’re on the verge of some sort of major conflict in the Middle East—the kind of war that would make Iraq look like a walk in the park.

The Intercept's Mehdi Hasan says there's seven things you should know about Donald Trump and Iran.

Subscribe to our channel: https://interc.pt/subscribe
Category News & Politics
Title: How Soleimani's Assassination Violates International Law and Puts Peace Further Out of Reach
Post by: AGelbert on January 07, 2020, 06:22:47 pm
How Soleimani's Assassination Violates International Law and Puts Peace Further Out of Reach
11,527 views•Jan 6, 2020

https://youtu.be/BFoe5OUE8_g

The Real News Network
375K subscribers

Phyllis Bennis says Congress must stop Trump from taking the U.S. to war without any justification or provocation.

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category
News & Politics

Soleimani’s Assassination Brings US Closer to War with Iran
7,410 views•Jan 6, 2020

https://youtu.be/2JO8PDdZLAI

The Real News Network
375K subscribers

Trump threatens Iran with more war crimes as Democrats move to invoke the War Powers Act.

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category News & Politics
Title: Did Trump Start A World War?
Post by: AGelbert on January 07, 2020, 06:52:49 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)

Did (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-020818201759-1490907.jpeg&hash=4f378d8d41d81128badca5842b1835d9a5290a8d) Trump Start A World War?
68,323 views•Jan 3, 2020

https://youtu.be/fNP2L0JrSv8

Thom Hartmann Program
202K subscribers

Donald Trump Could have just started a third World War...  but to understand what's happening in Iran today, we have to understand what happened in Iraq back in 2003. 
 
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

Donald Trump's latest move is in line with what Bush and Cheney did to get us into the war with Iraq in 2003, Thom Hartmann breaks down the news to give us a background on the region.

Is there any time for the people of the United States to stop from going to war with Iran?

Will a war with Iran boil out into a regional or a world war, and how will Russia or China react?

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: Pentagon Admits that attacking Iranian Cultural Sites (🦀 Trump's threat) Would be War Crimes
Post by: AGelbert on January 07, 2020, 09:20:28 pm
Pentagon Admits that attacking Iranian Cultural Sites (🦀 Trump's threat) Would be War Crimes.

Will Soleimani's Assassination Set Back Iraq's October Revolution?
1,563 views•Jan 7, 2020

https://youtu.be/48zKCYDyfxs

The Real News Network
375K subscribers

Soleimani's killing could open a path for peace if cooler heads prevail, argues professor of Middle East politics Sabah Alnasseri.

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category
News & Politics
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on January 08, 2020, 07:00:06 am
(https://scontent.forf1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/81367622_2701030639932322_7695615185704189952_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&_nc_eui2=AeExwUwlpkjeIrEtAUNnBrkhj49FYUNtHqZqYTICzD8YqPMdZcVZa8HtColP3iG7cNqGdqXRmsMWB2V1GnPOekbd83Tg-xX6xe0xXNFQJpbdKw&_nc_ohc=rvNvxsgdfiYAQmROnso5TRwHS8iVUmTKbEhShtmGIkhSalfLt6QQ6jNFA&_nc_ht=scontent.forf1-1.fna&oh=d43438ae8af9c82d8679057bc30ed836&oe=5EA5A0A5)

A reminder that Fat Orange takes full credit for the performance of the stock market.
Title: Don't Say You Weren't Warned
Post by: Surly1 on January 08, 2020, 08:58:25 am
The Nightmare Stage of Trump’s Rule Is Here (https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/06/opinion/trump-iran.html)

Unstable and impeached, the president pushes the U.S. toward war with Iran.

Damon Winter/The New York Times

There are no more adults in the room.

After three harrowing years, we’ve reached the point many of us feared from the moment Donald Trump was elected. His decision to kill Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, Iran’s second most important official, made at Mar-a-Lago with little discernible deliberation, has brought the United States to the brink of a devastating new conflict in the Middle East.

We don’t yet know how Iran will retaliate, or whether all-out war will be averted. But already, NATO has suspended its mission training Iraqi forces to fight ISIS. Iraq’s Parliament has voted to expel American troops — a longtime Iranian objective. (On Monday, U.S. forces sent a letter saying they were withdrawing from Iraq in response, only to then claim that it was a draft released in error.) On Sunday, Iran said it will no longer be bound by the remaining restrictions on its nuclear program in the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal that Trump abandoned in 2018. Trump has been threatening to commit war crimes by destroying Iran’s cultural sites and tried to use Twitter to notify Congress of his intention to respond to any Iranian reprisals with military escalation.

The administration has said that the killing of Suleimani was justified by an imminent threat to American lives, but there is no reason to believe this. One skeptical American official told The New York Times that the new intelligence indicated nothing but “a normal Monday in the Middle East,” and Democrats briefed on it were unconvinced by the administration’s case. The Washington Post reported that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — who last year agreed with a Christian Broadcasting Network interviewer that God might have sent Trump to save Israel from the “Iranian menace” — has been pushing for a hit on Suleimani for months.

Rather than self-defense, the Suleimani killing seems like the dreadful result of several intersecting dynamics. There’s the influence of rapture-mad Iran hawks like Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence. Defense officials who might have stood up to Trump have all left the administration. According to Peter Bergen’s book “Trump and His Generals,” James Mattis, Trump’s former secretary of defense, instructed his subordinates not to provide the president with options for a military showdown with Iran. But with Mattis gone, military officials, The Times reported, presented Trump with the possibility of killing Suleimani as the “most extreme” option on a menu of choices, and were “flabbergasted” when he picked it.

Trump likely had mixed motives. He was reportedly upset over TV images of militia supporters storming the American Embassy in Iraq. According to The Post, he also was frustrated by “negative coverage” of his decision last year to order and then call off strikes on Iran.

Beyond that, Trump, now impeached and facing trial in the Senate, has laid out his rationale over years of tweets. The president is a master of projection, and his accusations against others are a decent guide to how he himself will behave. He told us, over and over again, that he believed Barack Obama would start a war with Iran to “save face” and because his “poll numbers are in a tailspin” and he needed to “get re-elected.” To Trump, a wag-the-dog war with Iran evidently seemed like a natural move for a president in trouble.

It’s hard to see how this ends without disaster. Defenders of Trump’s move have suggested that he might have re-established deterrence against Iran, frightening its leadership into restraint. But Vali Nasr, a Middle East scholar at Johns Hopkins University and former senior adviser to Obama’s State Department, tells me that Iran likely believes that it has to re-establish deterrence against the United States.

“If they don’t do anything, or if they don’t do enough, then Trump will get comfortable with this kind of behavior, and that worries them,” said Nasr. To Iranians, after all, America is the aggressor, scrapping a nuclear agreement that they were abiding by and imposing a punishing “maximum pressure” sanctions campaign. Just like militarists in the United States, they’re likely to assume that weakness invites attacks. “I don’t think they want to provoke war, but they do want to send a signal that they’re prepared for it,” said Nasr.

Even if Iran were to somehow decide not to strike back at the United States, it’s still ramping up its nuclear program, and Trump has obliterated the possibility of a return to negotiations. “His maximum pressure policy has failed,” Nasr said of Trump. “He has only produced a more dangerous Iran.”

Meanwhile, ISIS benefits from the breach between Iraq and America. “ISIS suicide and vehicle bombings have nearly stopped entirely,” said Brett McGurk, who until 2018 was special presidential envoy to the coalition fighting ISIS. “Only a few years ago, there were 50 per month, killing scores of Iraqis. That’s because of what we have done and continue to do. These networks will regenerate rapidly if we are forced to leave, and they will again turn their attention on the West.”

Unlike with North Korea, it’s difficult to imagine any photo op or exchange of love letters defusing the crisis the president has created. Most of this country has never accepted Trump, but over the past three years, many have gotten used to him, lulled into uneasy complacency by an establishment that has too often failed to treat him as a walking national emergency. Now the nightmare phase of the Trump presidency is here. The biggest surprise is that it took so long.

Title: Mike Lee furious after an 'insulting' Senate briefing on Trump's Iran strike
Post by: Surly1 on January 09, 2020, 08:05:55 am
GOP Sen. Mike Lee furious after an 'insulting' Senate briefing on Trump's Iran strike: 'The worst briefing ... on a military issue I've seen in 9 years' (https://www.businessinsider.com/gop-mike-lee-furious-senate-briefing-trump-iran-strike-2020-1)

(https://image.businessinsider.com/5e164bb524fe125f29461209?width=2500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)

  • Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was furious on Wednesday after a Senate briefing on President Donald Trump's decision to order an airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani.
  • Lee called it "probably the worst briefing, at least on a military issue, I've seen in nine years I've been here."
  • He said he "walked into that briefing undecided" on whether to support a war-powers resolution being pushed by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. The resolution would limit the Trump administration's ability to take further military action against Iran without congressional authorization.
  • "That briefing is what changed my mind," Lee said. "I'm now going to support it."
  • Other lawmakers — both Republican and Democratic — also ripped the Trump administration after being briefed on the strike, saying they saw little evidence to support such drastic measures against Iran. 
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Republican Sen. Mike Lee of Utah was furious on Wednesday after a Senate briefing on President Donald Trump's decision to order an airstrike that killed Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani, which brought tensions with Iran to a boiling point.

Lee told reporters that he "walked into that briefing undecided" on whether to support a war-powers resolution being pushed by Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia. The resolution would limit the Trump administration's ability to take further military action against Iran without congressional authorization.

"That briefing is what changed my mind," Lee said. "I'm now going to support it."

He went on to call the briefing "probably the worst briefing, at least on a military issue, I've seen in nine years I've been here."

"Drive-by notification or after-the-fact lame briefings like the one we just received aren't adequate," he said.

"I find it insulting; I find it demeaning" to the Senate and the Constitution, the senator added. "It's un-American, it's unconstitutional, and it's wrong," he said after adding that the people who briefed senators on Trump's strike said the lawmakers could not debate the merits of the measure.

Republican Sen. Rand Paul of Kentucky, who stood alongside Lee as they addressed reporters, said he would also support a war-powers resolution to block further action against Iran.

"Today, this is Sen. Lee and I saying we are not abdicating our duty," Rand said.

Several other congressional lawmakers have voiced their dissatisfaction with the administration's briefings on the strike against Soleimani, who was Iran's most powerful military official and a widely revered figure within the nation.

Asked if she was convinced that there was evidence that Soleimani was planning an "imminent" attack on US personnel, as the administration has said, Democratic Sen. Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts replied, "No" but said she could not elaborate further.

Democratic Rep. Pramila Jayapal echoed that, saying, "There was no raw evidence presented that this was an imminent threat."

On Tuesday, as questions swirled about how robust the intelligence supporting the Soleimani strike was, Defense Secretary Mark Esper was asked whether the Iranian attacks against US personnel were days or weeks away before Soleimani's death.

"I think it's more fair to say days, for sure," Esper said.

But reporting from The New York Times' Rukmini Callimachi indicated that the underlying intelligence for the strike was "razor thin."

Callimachi reported that one source told her there wasn't evidence of an "imminent" attack on US interests that could kill hundreds, as the White House has said. "The official describes the reading of the intelligence as an illogical leap," she reported.

In the days since the Soleimani strike, both Iran and the US ratcheted up their actions and rhetoric amid historically high tensions. Iran on Sunday withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, and the US sent another 3,500 troops into Iraq after ordering Americans to evacuate the region in the wake of Soleimani's assassination.

Trump also ignited a firestorm when he tweeted on Saturday that he would target 52 Iranian cultural sites – which would constitute a war crime if carried out — if Iran retaliated for Soleimani's death. The president later walked back his comments and said he would "obey the law" with respect to military action.

On Tuesday, Iran retaliated against the US for the Soleimani strike by launching a missile attack on US and coalition forces in Iraq. However, Trump announced on Wednesday that the attack didn't result in any American casualties and said Iran "appears to be standing down."

Rather than retaliate with force, the US will impose tougher economic sanctions on Iran, Trump said, adding that the days of tolerating Iran's malign behavior "are over."

Title: Iran probe finds Ukrainian plane turned back after 'problem'
Post by: Surly1 on January 09, 2020, 08:13:07 am
Follow the link for other images and video.

Ukrainian Flight 752 was on fire and seemed to be turning back before it crashed in Iran and killed 176 people, the first report into the disaster said (https://www.businessinsider.com/iran-ukraine-flight-752-crash-initial-report-fire-return-airport-2020-1)

(https://image.businessinsider.com/5e16f37124fe120f697a8183?width=2500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)

Sinéad Baker
1 hour ago
  • The first report into the Ukraine International Airlines disaster in Iran said that the aircraft was on fire in the air before it crashed and had turned back towards Tehran Airport, suggesting it was trying to return.
  • Iran's aviation authority released its preliminary report on Thursday, just one day after Ukrainian Flight 752 crashed in Iran and killed all 176 people on board.
  • The report said the plane encountered a technical problem, but did not specify what kind.
  • Other Iranian authorities had blamed a technical problem in the hours after the crash, but later walked back their statements.
  • Speculation is mounting that something else may have happened to the plane amid military tension between the US and Iran and as the airline defends its plane, maintenance, and crew.
  • The final investigation into the causes of the crash is likely to take many more months.
  • Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

The initial report into the crash of Ukrainian Flight 752 in Iran, that killed all 176 people on board, concluded that the plane was on fire before it crashed, and that it appeared to be trying to turn back as it plunged to the ground.

Iran's Civil Aviation Organization's report into Wednesday's crash said that the jet encountered technical problems soon after it took off en route to Kyiv, Ukraine.

It did not elaborate on what sort of technical problem the plane may have suffered, but the idea that the plane was brought down by technical problems, rather than being shot down or facing another problem, is in line with those that had been released by Iranian authorities in the hours after the crash.

But some of those statements have been walked back since.

The preliminary report was released on Thursday, just one day after the crash, and is not intended as the final report into the disaster. Final reports into aviation disasters tend to take many months, or even years, to be published.

Thursday's report said the plane changed direction after encountering the unidentified technical problem and was facing the direction of Tehran airport when it crashed, suggesting it was trying to go back.

Ali Abedzadeh, the head of Iran's Civil Aviation Organization, said the plane did not make any distress calls.

The Ukraine International Airlines plane, a Boeing 737 800-NG, crashed just minutes after takeoff from Imam Khomeini airport. The airline has defended the plane's maintenance, saying it was only delivered in 2016 and had been inspected just two days before the crash.

In a statement released Wednesday, the airline also pointed to the experience of the crew. Ukraine International Airlines said the pilots on the flight both had a minimum of 7,600 hours of flight experience on Boeing 737 planes.

The report, which cited eyewitnesses on the ground, said that Ukraine International Airlines flight 752 created a massive explosion when it crashed. That was likely due to the fuel on board for the journey combusting, it added.

The report is in line with video footage that was shared by the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency on Wednesday, which appeared to show the plane on fire in the air before it hits the ground, filling the sky with flames.

The content of the video, which can be seen below, and its connection to this crash has not yet been verified.

خبرگزاری ایسنا@isna_farsi

نخستین ویدئو از سقوط هواپیمای اوکراینی اطراف شهریار

Embedded video
1,304 people are talking about this

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was Ukraine's priority to find the cause of the crash, while Canada's Justin Trudeau vowed to said: "Our government will continue to work closely with its international partners to ensure that … [the crash] is thoroughly investigated, and that Canadians' questions are answered."

63 of the people on board were Canadian citizens, Ukraine's foreign minister said.

But their vows come as speculation mounts over the cause of the crash, and Iranian authorities walking back initial assertions that a technical fault was definitely to blame.

Speculation is rampant as to the cause of the crash, and the investigation might not be totally straightforward

Speculation has mounted as to what caused the crash, and the investigation is already showing signs of political friction.

Iranian authorities said in the hours after the crash that it had been caused by technical problems, dismissing the idea that it could have been caused by a terrorist or military attack.

But Abedzadeh later told the Iranian news outlet Mehr that there was no evidence of technical problems, according to reporting by The New York Times. This was contradicted again by the report.

" data-content-type="image/jpeg" data-srcs="{"https://image.businessinsider.com/5e17027ef442311585685704":{"contentType":"image/jpeg","aspectRatioW":900,"aspectRatioH":599}}" alt="Iran crash" />
Relatives of the victims of the Ukraine International Airlines Boeing 737-800 crash in the Iranian capital Tehran, react by a memorial at the Boryspil airport outside Kiev on January 8, 2020.
SERGEI SUPINSKY/AFP via Getty Images

A spokesperson for Iran's military said the crash was not caused by Iranian military action: "They are spreading propaganda that the Ukrainian flight was targeted. This is ridiculous. Most of the passengers on this flight were our valued young Iranian men and women."

Ukraine's embassy in Tehran initially dismissed the idea of terrorism or a rocket attack soon after the crash, blaming an engine failure instead. That statement was later deleted and replaced by one that said the cause is unknown and is being investigated.

According to Reuters, the embassy said the earlier statement was based on preliminary information but was not official, and that Iranian authorities had asked the embassy to remove it.

Suspicion over what might have caused the crash has been heightened due to the increased tensions in Iran after the US assassinated its top general and Iran subsequently attacked bases housing US troops in Iraq.

Iran attacked two Iraqi military bases that housed US and coalition forces with ballistic missiles hours before the crash on Wednesday, but there is currently no suggestion that the two incidents are linked.

Ukraine said on Thursday that its investigators want to search the crash site for possible missile debris from a Russian missile, Reuters reported.

Peter Goelz, a former managing director of the US' National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB), told The New York Times that: "Investigators should put consideration of an attack." 

Zelensky said on Facebook that "All possible versions of what occurred must be examined."

Iran, where the crash occurred, must mount an investigation under international law.

But such investigations also typically involve countries where many victims are from — in this case, Ukraine and Canada — as well as the plane's manufacturer.

In this case, political tensions between the US and Iran may prevent the NTSB, which often assists international investigations that involve Boeing, from getting involved.

It said on Wednesday that it is "monitoring the developments" and is working with US agencies to "determine the best course of action." 

Boeing, one of the US's biggest companies, may struggle to get involved.

Abedzadeh said that Iran's Civil Aviation Organization would not give the plane's black boxes to the company. He said the initial findings had been sent to the US, alongside other countries.

Sahar Esfandiari contributed reporting to this story

Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 09, 2020, 04:17:07 pm
(https://image.businessinsider.com/5e16f37124fe120f697a8183?width=2500&format=jpeg&auto=webp)
B737 engine at B737 Crash Location in Iran (http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg15130/#msg15130)

Isn't it just amazing how no engine was on the rather clean and totally green and unburned lawn in front of the Pentagon on 9/11.


The 9/11 video that was aired once and never aired again.
https://youtu.be/07Bn_CC_mrg

I think I understand where those engines from that alleged "jetliner" that struck the Pentagon "went". You see, the Pentagon has this amazing ability to make things "disappear" (see below).

https://youtu.be/IVpSBUgbxBU
Title: The Liars that Led Us to War
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2020, 02:18:48 pm
Agelbert NOTE: These murderous liars are TRAITORS! There is NO statute of limitations on TREASON. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838) ANYONE that supports a TRAITOR POTUS is ALSO A TRAITOR!

The (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817135149.gif&hash=b4a8748d7cf56a31dd0a6aae5828ed2c1ac2815c) Liars that Led Us to War

January 10, 2020

Two Iraq war veterans explain why Congress has failed to stop the endless wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and say the United States needs to learn from its imperialist history if anything is going to change.

https://youtu.be/qjdDLztrJkc

https://therealnews.com/stories/liars-war-iraq-iran-history

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.directzine4dems.com%2F1114-toons%2Fhornet-nest.jpg&hash=7bacc1d2053bd47ad63b805f25c9c89e902917cf)
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Title: Full Disclosure: News 😇 Pundits’ Hidden ☠️ Arms Industry 😈 Ties 👀
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2020, 04:01:42 pm
Full Disclosure: News 😇 Pundits’ Hidden ☠️Arms Industry 😈 Ties 👀
3,378 views•Premiered Janyary 10, 2020 2:00 PM

https://youtu.be/RVKYceDLA2c

The Intercept
134K subscribers

A loud chorus of voices appeared in the media to celebrate President Donald Trump’s decision to assassinate Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, a move that has sparked renewed tension in the Middle East, a new deployment of U.S. forces, and predictions of increased military spending.

Many of the pundits who appeared on national television or were quoted in major publications to praise the president’s actions have undisclosed ties to the defense industry — the only domestic industry that stands to gain from increased violence.

"It’s not the first time defense contractor pundits have failed to disclose their vested stake in the 🦍 military policies they advocate. The Boston Globe reported on how defense contractors routinely retain former high-level officers to serve as lobbyists, even though few bother registering or complying with ethics disclosures. 🦍 Keane, for instance, was tapped by the contractor AM General to pressure lawmakers to support a plan to purchase new Humvee vehicles from the company rather than refurbish older models."  >:(


Read the full story from The Intercept's Lee Fang here: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-221219143548.png)
TV PUNDITS PRAISING SULEIMANI ASSASSINATION NEGLECT TO DISCLOSE TIES TO ARMS INDUSTRY (https://theintercept.com/2020/01/06/iran-suleimani-tv-pundits-weapons-industry/) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160017-22191429.png) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-241119204318.png)

Category News & Politics
Title: Trump Is A Giant Boost To Imperialism (So was Obama!)
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2020, 05:21:16 pm
🦀 TRUMP Is A Giant Boost To Imperialism (w/ Katrina vanden Huevel) 🐍 OBAMA WAS TOO!
2,456 views•Jan 9, 2020

https://youtu.be/jywctROwmKs

Thom Hartmann Program
203K subscribers

Katrina Vanden Hueval writes " the 2010s were a decade of imperial outreach, and now Trump is making it worse".
 
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

Thom Hartmann is joined by Katrina vanden Huevel discussing how Donald Trump is ratcheting up the imperialism during his presidency.

What can we do to stop imperialism and people like Donald Trump who will worsen conditions for people around the world and here at home?

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: Maj. Danny Sjursen 👍: Iran, War, and Working Soldiers
Post by: AGelbert on January 10, 2020, 05:30:57 pm
Maj. Danny Sjursen 👍: Iran, War, and Working Soldiers
179 views•Jan 10, 2020

https://youtu.be/v96eqH96aqo

The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow
26.2K subscribers

Subscribe to The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow for more: https://www.patreon.com/thezerohour

If you liked this clip of The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, please share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!

Some of the music bumpers featuring Lettuce, http://lettucefunk.com.
Category News & Politics
Title: Is Donald Trump The Real Terrorizer?
Post by: AGelbert on January 11, 2020, 09:20:44 pm
Is Donald Trump The Real Terrorizer?
4,367 views•Jan 10, 2020

https://youtu.be/dpxbqGgIC-4

Thom Hartmann Program
203K subscribers

Now Trump is terrorizing America and the world, by bringing us to the brink of WWIII, and he is fundraisers on it at the same time.
 
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

Doug Collins Says Democrats Love Terrorists - when It's Republics Who Really Do. Bush & Cheney used terrorism to make Cheney rich with no-bid contracts for Halliburton and to enrich their buddies among the defense contractors.

Trump and Pence openly proclaimed a policy of terrorizing refugees by putting their children in cages and the republicans as a whole have been terrorizing working people since 1981 with their war on the right to unionize, their war on healthcare and their war on social security.

Just like Bush and Cheney, he lied about the "imminent threat" to increase his power and make his friends rich

And why does the Trump administration refuse to discuss it?

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: Did Trump Strike Soleimani so GOP Won't Impeach Him?
Post by: AGelbert on January 11, 2020, 09:27:16 pm
Did Trump Strike Soleimani so GOP Won't Impeach Him?
7,834 views•Jan 10, 2020

https://youtu.be/-L2vOTp1VtM

Thom Hartmann Program
203K subscribers

Donald Trump apparently told people close to him that the strike on Iranian General Qasem Soleimani was to make sure Republican senators who are judges in his impeachment were satisfied, according to the Wall Street journal.

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Will the strike against Soleimani be added to articles of impeachment on the Ukrainian bribery scandal?  Can congress stop Donald Trump in time before he makes another deal with GOP senators? And which senators are responsible?

Will Trump's plan work out and will the GOP let him slide through impeachment after he carried out his end of the bargain?

There's something rotten in the White House.

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: Who 🦍 Profits when Iran and America Fight?
Post by: AGelbert on January 13, 2020, 03:45:39 pm
Who (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) Profits  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418193910.gif&hash=633dd399cd6006279afd7efb5ef953673b96bd78) when Iran and America Fight?
5,850 views•Jan 13, 2020

https://youtu.be/PNyEcVTDwI0

The Real News Network
376K subscribers

We spoke to Code Pink co-founder Medea Benjamin after Thursday's War Powers resolution vote. Whose interests are driving the narrative around conflict with Iran?

Director/Video Editor: Taylor Hebden
Audio Engineer: Bababtunde Ogunfolaju
Visual Producer: Andrew Corkery
Chase Producer: Genevieve Montinar

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category News & Politics
Title: Iran Escalation Changes Trump Supporter's Mind
Post by: AGelbert on January 13, 2020, 07:52:07 pm
Iran Escalation Changes Trump Supporter's Mind 👍
11,192 views•Jan 10, 2020

https://youtu.be/tEIvgINPiOY

Thom Hartmann Program
203K subscribers

A Trump supporter is changing sides after Trump's escalation with Iran, will more follow?
 
🔴 Subscribe for more clips like this: https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...

Thom talks to a former Trump support who voted for Donald to stop "endless wars" only to find Trump starting wars and inflaming tensions around the world.

Will other Trump supporters stop supporting the president for his support of endless wars?

⭐ Join our Membership and Support the Channel:  https://www.youtube.com/user/thomhart...
Title: How Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders Almost Stopped Trump
Post by: AGelbert on January 13, 2020, 07:56:36 pm
How Ro Khanna and Bernie Sanders Almost Stopped 🦀 Trump (w/ Ro Khanna)
3,745 views•Jan 10, 2020

https://youtu.be/_fKSvAsMe_I

Thom Hartmann Program
203K subscribers

Bernie Sanders and Ro Khanna almost stopped Trump's escalation with Iran, and they would have too if their amendment to the NDAA wasn't crushed.
 
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Congressman Ro Khanna joins the Thom Hartmann Program to discuss the near victory against warmongers that was cut short when an amendment drafted by himself and Bernie Sanders was cut from the NDAA, greenlighting Trump's strike against Iranian General Soleimani.

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Title: What do we know about Suleimani from the leaked Iranian spy cables obtained by The Intercept?
Post by: AGelbert on January 14, 2020, 07:06:04 pm
January 14, 2020 PREMIERE NEW YORK

Trump vs. Iran: What Now?

https://youtu.be/XCkNKYXOJIY

The Intercept
135K subscribers

Following the Trump administration’s assassination of Maj. Gen. Qassim Suleimani, tensions between the United States and Iran rose to the boiling point. On Monday, January 13, The Intercept’s Jeremy Scahill moderated a discussion on the unfolding crisis in front of a live audience in New York, with Intercept's senior columnist Mehdi Hasan, reporter Murtaza Hussain, national security editor Vanessa Gezari, and senior news editor Ali Gharib.

Why did Trump kill Suleimani, and what does this mean for Iran? What do we know about Suleimani from the leaked Iranian spy cables obtained by The Intercept? Will Trump’s current posture hold, or will he order more violence? What can the rest of us — especially the left and the anti-war movement — do to stop this dangerous conflict from re-escalating?

Category News & Politics
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 17, 2020, 07:27:52 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.directzine4dems.com%2F1115-toons%2Ftrump-lie.jpg&hash=36f0f7945a01930694e4f3f1d7edd9bc9c416d29)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on January 17, 2020, 07:36:08 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.directzine4dems.com%2F1115-toons%2Fgen-solemani.jpg&hash=f85f3fd3cc4e872d27221ac4df6af704b06aa5b2)
Title: The Bush, Obama and Trump administrations all routinely lied to the American people about the succes
Post by: AGelbert on January 23, 2020, 02:23:15 pm
January 18, 2020

By Marjorie Cohn

Trump Is the Third President to Lie About Afghan War Success (https://marjoriecohn.com/trump-is-the-third-president-to-lie-about-afghan-war-success/)

Marjorie Cohn is professor emerita at Thomas Jefferson School of Law where she taught from 1991-2016, and a former president of the National Lawyers Guild. She lectures, writes, and provides commentary for local, regional, national and international media outlets. Professor Cohn has served as a news consultant for CBS News and a legal analyst for Court TV, as well as a legal and political commentator on BBC, CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, and Pacifica Radio.
Title: Sayed Sadiq al-Hashemi, the director of the Iraqi Center for Studies, estimated that more than 2.5 m
Post by: AGelbert on January 25, 2020, 04:39:27 pm
January 24th, 2020

By Alan Macleod

(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EPCqGP2U8AA238-?format=jpg&name=small)
Feature photo | Demonstrators carry placards depicting U.S. President Donald Trump at a protest against the presence of US troops in Iraq on Jan. 24, 2020. Ala’a Al-Marjani | Reuters

Enormous Crowds at Iraq’s Million Man March Tell America to Leave for Good 👍 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818184310-1635923.gif&hash=5e2530db4748ed6c7163e1d478fdfa3cd1108668)
https://www.mintpressnews.com/iraq-million-man-march-tell-us-troops-leave-good/264293/
Title: Russia: Turkish positions were hit out of a lack of information...🤔
Post by: AGelbert on February 03, 2020, 03:21:05 pm
Mon, 02/03/2020 - 13:05 👀

Rare Direct Clash Between Turkish & Syrian Armies Leaves Scores Dead & Wounded (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/turkish-syrian-armies-rare-clashes-idlib-scores-killed-each-side)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on February 17, 2020, 12:39:35 am
(https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/R39eRzkkqSXvJ5JZZCJqIDPXghTlYeGUwFgQdYWWJvtCTu4LJwYIGCEMnJgSu5z661GCnjS2vAiQvetCgIR3yAMwgEAKFjUE3kejUu9NWh6kA7MaT1-WA-S2xe4PyJIjwrRKWHN-A0MwqPUsDeEYe6eDFHSK0w=s0-d-e1-ft#https://mcusercontent.com/33602bebba8fb7dd6e71fb413/images/1032f52b-ba16-4685-b85c-ccc9da760a6a.png)

 
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Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: Surly1 on February 17, 2020, 08:53:36 am
That's the Chilton's Guide to US imperialism. The next step after the "?" is loans from the World Bank that they can never pay off, c.f. John Perkins' "Confessions of An Economic Hitman."
Title: Unreported 👹 Opposition Violence Continues in Venezuela
Post by: AGelbert on February 21, 2020, 05:34:14 pm
Unreported 👹 Opposition Violence Continues in Venezuela
February 21, 2020

Venezuela’s opposition has a long history of burning government buildings, health clinics, and the local headquarters of the country's social missions. The violence continues, but these acts of opposition violence are rarely covered in the press.

https://youtu.be/95hONcnRcGk

https://therealnews.com/stories/opposition-violence-venezuela-unreported-violence

(https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Imperialism-supporters.jpg)
Title: 🕊 Medea Benjamin: The Peace Movement is Part of 💐 Every Other Social Movement
Post by: AGelbert on February 22, 2020, 08:49:18 pm
🕊 Medea Benjamin: The 🕊 Peace Movement is Part of 💐 every Other Social Movement (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818180844.png&hash=d74cfbba22967e53f7eb6202dffdd50b3e520fe2)
518 views•Feb 22, 2020

https://youtu.be/NDnT72x-obc

The Real News Network
387K subscribers

Medea Benjamin at the United National Antiwar Coalition Conference 2020. Benjamin is a co-founder of Code Pink and a veteran peace activist. Here she answers the question "what should people do to advance the peace movement at this time?"

Subscribe to our page and support our work at https://therealnews.com/donate.
Category News & Politics
Title: Idlib, Syria: 10 Schools Hit in One Day During Intense Shelling 🥵
Post by: AGelbert on February 27, 2020, 05:12:20 pm
Idlib, Syria: 10 Schools Hit in One Day 🥵 During Intense Shelling | Save the Children
112 views•Feb 27, 2020

https://youtu.be/yg5YF6tt-38

Save the Children USA
17.3K subscribers

At least one girl and nine other civilians were killed on February 25, 2020 during the shelling of ten schools, as the latest escalation in conflict in Idlib, Syria continues. Twenty-two schools have now been hit since the start of 2020—almost half of them in one day. Save the Children knows schools must be safe havens for children, even in a conflict zone, and is calling for an immediate cessation of hostilities. To learn more about our work in Syria, visit www.SavetheChildren.org/Syria.
 
➡ Subscribe: http://ow.ly/2oKi30kWzLX
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About Save the Children: Save the Children invests in childhood – every day, in times of crisis and for our future. In the United States and around the world, we give children a healthy start, the opportunity to learn and protection from harm. By transforming children's lives now, we change the course of their future and ours.
 
Stay current with Save the Children:
Voices from the Field blog: http://blog.savethechildren.org
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Category Nonprofits & Activism

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Title: WBW News & Action: 20 👹 Dictators Backed by the 🦍 U.S. Government
Post by: AGelbert on March 23, 2020, 12:45:59 pm
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20 👹 Dictators Backed by the 🦍 U.S. Government (https://worldbeyondwar.org/wbw-news-action-20-dictators/) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132422-1692935.gif&hash=94922268ae283c7009e29067ba89220f466726ec)
Title: Trump Trying Venezuela Wag the Dog Distraction from COVID-19 Clusterfuck and Senators Fighting him
Post by: AGelbert on April 04, 2020, 09:07:58 pm
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(https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Imperialism-supporters.jpg) Beyond Chutzpah: 🦍 US Charges Venezuela With Narco-Terrorism (https://popularresistance.org/beyond-chutzpah-us-charges-venezuela-with-nacro-terrorism/)
By Roger D. Harris, Popular Resistance. US Attorney General Barr’s indictments on March 26 against the government of Venezuela for narco-terrorism go beyond chutzpah. For starters, William P. Barr was chief counsel for the CIA airline Southern Air Transport implicated in the 1980s for running illicit drugs and related narco-terrorism during Iran-Contra. The US charges of drug trafficking against Venezuela are the height of hypocrisy. The world’s leading source of heroin is US-occupied Afghanistan; the US is the world’s largest **** market.

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By Staff, Alba Ciudad with OT content. A group of 11 Democratic senators demanded that the White House temporarily suspend the coercive measures imposed on Venezuela and Iran in the face of the Covid-19 pandemic. The senators sent a letter on Thursday to the secretary of the State Department, Mike Pompeo, and to the secretary of the Treasury, Steven Mnuchin, to request the suspension for 90 days and allow the reception of humanitarian assistance, Hispan TV reported.
Title: 📢 Stop the Largest Naval War Practice in the World
Post by: AGelbert on April 04, 2020, 11:15:44 pm
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April 4, 2020 1:28 PM

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War games and weapons shows have been halted and scaled back around the world since the coronavirus pandemic began, but the U.S. Navy has yet to cancel the biggest naval war rehearsal in the world -- and at a time when Trump is stirring up hatred for China!

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Please sign and share this petition to the U.S. Congress and Pentagon, created by retired Colonel 🕊 Ann Wright:

Stop the international Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) naval war practice in Hawaiian waters from June through August 2020. The war practices are provocative on a regional level and with the COVID-19 virus, military personnel arriving in Hawaii will endanger citizens of the isolated island state of Hawaii.

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Title: THIS is how propaganda that starts wars is pushed in our faces.
Post by: AGelbert on April 06, 2020, 10:50:23 pm
Agelbert NOTE: The following is textbook disinformation. The Venezuelan Navy Patrol Boat had hailed the Cruise ship for being unauthorized in those waters. The Cruise ship, nearly EMPTY of passengers, pretended to apologize. When the Venezuelan Patrol boat ordered the Cruise ship, which has a reinforced hull for dealing with icebergs, to go to a nearby port, said Cruise ship proceeded to RAM AND SINK the Venezuelan Patrol Boat. Then, to add insult to injury, the Cruise ship just left! The Venezuelan sailors were rescued by other Venezuelans that had been alerted to their plight.

Now read the series of bold faced LIES below. THIS is how propaganda that starts wars is pushed in our faces. The claim that the Venezuelan Patrol boat did the ramming is laughable, as it is clear from the stills in the video that the Cruise ship did it, no matter how they try to claim otherwise.

In this particular case, the Cruise ship was probably carrying something they did not want anyone to know about, meaning it was about contraband, not war provocation, but the US could pull something like this as a "justification" for war and invasion of Venezuela. >:(

I lined out the lie and put the truth in parentheses in the Orwellian headline below:

Venezuelan Navy Ship SINKS After (BEING RAMMED BY) Ramming Reinforced Cruise Liner In La Tortuga
3,781 views•Apr 4, 2020

https://youtu.be/7_i_bYCkodU

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PatrynWorldLatestNew
107K subscribers
A Venezuelan naval boat picked and lost a fight with a passenger cruise liner off the country's northern coast this week, ramming it several times before accidentally taking on water and sinking.

Columbia Cruise Services, the owner of the cruise liner, said the Venezuelan crew had fired shots and appeared to be trying to seize the civilian vessel, which was also an icebreaker. It described the move as an “act of aggression in international waters”.

The 122m RCGS Resolute is a luxury liner which sails under a Portuguese flag and is designed for voyages in Antarctica.

The cruise ship, which was carrying 32 crew and no passengers, was idling during maintenance on its way to the Dutch-owned island of Curacao.

Shortly after midnight, the ship was approached by the patrol boat Naiguata which allegedly ordered it to sail for a Venezuelan island, Isla de Margarita.

All 44 members of the naval crew were rescued by the local authorities, but the Spanish-built vessel, which cost $US350m, sank without trace in waters 180m deep.

Music: "Species" Diamond Ortiz by Youtube Music Library
Blog: https://patrynworldlatestnews.blogspo...
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Category News & Politics

AGelbert COMMENT: This is TOTAL BULLSHIT. It was the Cruise ship carrying contraband that rammed the Venezuelan boat, you lying bastards! AND, it was the Cruise ship that sailed away and left the Venezuelan sailors to drown. They were rescued by others alerted to their plight.

The TRUTH is at the 1:06:00 time mark on the following talk show: 🔊

April 6, 2020

Down Goes Boris Johnson.Biden Says Bernie Backers Will Fall In Line, Anya Prampil On Maduro & Biden
https://youtu.be/oPnGOpZfiSc
Title: 🕊 Peace 👉 Actions 🌿✨
Post by: AGelbert on April 13, 2020, 03:03:24 pm
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A Global Ceasefire Is Advancing

RootsAction Team info@rootsaction.org via mail.salsalabs.net

Apr 12, 2020, 2:12 PM

Since the Secretary General of the United Nations proposed a global ceasefire during the coronavirus pandemic, several dozen nations have expressed support, and several have ceased firing.

Wars have paused in Yemen, the Philippines, Colombia, and Cameroon. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132400-16842321.gif&hash=e2590f92501c5dd6149626bb0ab180ce9e1d5bd3)

Please join with RootsAction and World BEYOND War in urging all governments to commit to and abide by the golabl ceasefire.

Add your name here. (https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/global-ceasefire-now?source=RootsActionCeasefire202004&referrer=group-rootsactionorg)

Of course, there is no sane reason why a global ceasefire shouldn't be extended indefinitely, with military resources gradually redirected into human and environmental needs.

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Thanks for all you do! Stay safe!
Title: The first causalty of war is Truth. The rest are mostly civilians. 😡
Post by: AGelbert on April 13, 2020, 07:28:14 pm
April 13, 2020

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Title: "... — we find ourselves in a moment that couldn’t be bunkier. "
Post by: AGelbert on April 14, 2020, 06:13:03 pm
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Could the U.S. Forever Wars Be Part of Our Past in a Post-Coronavirus Planet? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221017161839.png&hash=7d34712243960aa20883775dad728bc2115ed6fe)

TOM ENGELHARDT, TOMDISPATCH

We must push for a world in which the U.S. military is no longer a sinkhole for endless trillions of taxpayer dollars.
Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/could-the-u-s-forever-wars-be-part-of-our-past-in-a-post-coronavirus-planet/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=ec855254-f504-49a0-9bf5-9c380afb669a)

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Title: Activists Urge Trader Joe's to Drop Turkish Goods
Post by: AGelbert on April 14, 2020, 06:31:50 pm
As 🐉 Turkey Bombs Syria, Activists Urge Trader Joe's to Drop Turkish Goods

ELLA FASSLER, TRUTHOUT

Turkey and its mercenaries are reportedly continuing to bomb the Kurdish Rojava region of Syria during the pandemic.
Read the Article → (https://truthout.org/articles/as-turkey-bombs-syria-activists-urge-trader-joes-to-drop-turkish-goods/?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=ec855254-f504-49a0-9bf5-9c380afb669a)
Title: Re: War Provocations and Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on April 18, 2020, 01:08:25 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/opaJIFXTiCFEf2qT1NZ_C5m6JxqD3jUwh-LQeJGeqMtu4nakZCthEeb74VnInXrZxtNIoF7VowTN-LFNhG0VhC58gG8l4WNaV-jf2yTxPyOfAJq_FOHAv6AaB9pm3TotrXBq9en0P0hSSv-qs98hABnPYRDGWZ_pLG75z6pAsyvRWuAI2W4MMZQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/04/ap_19025793940711_edited-e1587045215598-150x150.jpg) 18 Years After US Coup Against Venezuela, Pompeo And Abrams Warn Another Is Coming
By Alan Macleod, Mintpress News. On the eighteenth anniversary of the U.S.-backed coup against the government of Venezuela, senior American officials announced that the people should prepare for another imminent push. “The goal is to replace [President Nicolas] Maduro’s illegitimate dictatorship with a legitimate transitional government that can hold free and fair elections to represent all Venezuelans. It is time for Maduro to go,” announced Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. On Saturday the eleventh, exactly 18 years after the U.S. supported a briefly successful coup against Hugo Chavez, American envoy for Venezuela and coup specialist... -more- (https://popularresistance.org/18-years-after-us-coup-against-venezuela-pompeo-and-abrams-warn-another-is-coming/)

(https://www.globalresearch.ca/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Imperialism-supporters.jpg)

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By Popular Resistance. As the United States government escalates coercive economic warfare (sanctions) on Venezuela and sends warships to its shores, people in the United States, in solidarity with Venezuelans, are taking action to stop this insanity. Venezuelan activists sent a video message to us. Here are actions you can take - post a photo of yourself holding a sign and tag it with #FightCovidNotVenezuela; sign the open letter to the US government and the United Nations; attend the webinar, "An Inside View of Resistance to US Imperialism in Venezuela and How to Build International Solidarity," on April 22; and... -more- (https://popularresistance.org/act-now-to-stop-the-us-war-on-venezuela/)

(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/lwBg309zw1OuFDdKLocNrfwX9mt-PYpoFZvTH7yRXVu77guDlAl-cQH8hDHiBykjGfF2M958TNZ7og30AVcz2G5xhgpxpWrsvddZzOlHtEm0EMGnZhzsqeWmOt-4-7hJmwyFoNhgeSflQVgbyQGKZ2BG_Z1jY4qksvgWU9i-4tA=s0-d-e1-ft#https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/04/20190423_081322-e1587045992263-150x150.jpg) We Need Solidarity, Not Sanctions
By John Scales Avery, Transcend Media. According to the United Nations Charter, only the Security Council may impose sanctions. No individual nation may do so. Nevertheless, the United States currently imposes economic sanctions on Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Cuba, Venezuela, Belarus, Burundi, Central African Republic, China, Comoros, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Iraq, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Papua New Guinea, Russia, Somalia, South Sudan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Venezuela, Yemen, and Zimbabwe.  -more- (https://popularresistance.org/we-need-solidarity-not-sanctions/)

(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/laVQF3FbERZHmVK54ikt8PLMkdcEHAxS8GjDpFyedcu8UQl9FOeXEP6lJXw_RLAC4YeIl4gzpNcFbHpr1ZsFc8mCzuvKFT0egVsufq3edrbBgn7__FPWpKDgJZSu5BNqLqAc_EObWucKoPRRTqzAv4XVDoGC8vIHdB8=s0-d-e1-ft#https://popularresistance-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2020/04/portada_2-e1587051391580-150x150.jpg) Popular Power Will Not Be Quarantined!
By Ricardo Vaz, Venezuelanalysis. Analysing different future scenarios is a very common exercise for Venezuelan political organisations. With constant US pressure, imagining situations of foreign invasions, military coups, early elections, etc. is natural. Leftist organisations look to describe these scenarios before envisioning what their eventual role would be. Nevertheless, no one was prepared to face the coronavirus. While in the abovementioned examples revolutionary organisations have no problems figuring out where they stand, and where their enemies stand, this context changes everything. The enemy at hand is “invisible,” it cannot... -more- (https://popularresistance.org/popular-power-will-not-be-quarantined/)
Title: 🚩 MORE Wag the Dog BULLSHIT from CoronavirU.S. Cornered Trump
Post by: AGelbert on April 22, 2020, 01:54:22 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Falexanderhiggins.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2015%2F06%2Fobama-wag-the-dog.jpg&hash=3465f7b7a7d7686405a6daeb70f3e5ba887f343a)

Wed, 04/22/2020 - 11:46

Top (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718205137.gif&hash=7a79df8ecf1b29d8599c26fe550e664c6c5e24bd)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-080419191019.png&hash=a449294ee6fe2dfdea44c1c501f4439b9ac69c26)General Slams Iran's "Malign Behavior" As (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221216141740.jpeg&hash=bc039c277ca3c552a17daf10e9598f51be5e14a0) Trump Orders Navy To "Shoot Down & Destroy" Iranian Gunboats (https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/trump-orders-navy-shoot-down-and-destroy-iranian-gunboats?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29)


Quote
JeanTrejean 👍 59 seconds ago

Is this harassing ?  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718211017.gif&hash=1b5b289486b9429bdbdcb938b21ef1a2b66d30fc)

Or it's just a (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-010319144633.png&hash=290b550d0c55f2244e94fdab3349beb3452bec0f) Trump's dream ? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-010519192158-2201430.jpeg&hash=e912e1f5bdc041c35e217478b14ba3f7960e2037)

Small boats, very small boats. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121424.gif&hash=384c17a4d2be4831084933b91808f8a60f73f7f5)

Even the guns are not pointed to the US vessels. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-250817121649.png&hash=4554f7e59701d12857946aece16bceb973c997b3)

Trump is really getting crazy ! Please ! Save the world and sent him in cure.

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-081019223703.jpeg)
Title: A new collection of maps displays what militarism looks like in the world. Here’s a brief guide to u
Post by: AGelbert on May 04, 2020, 03:53:46 pm
(https://ci4.googleusercontent.com/proxy/GIivynV0dGLy7Z-8ehDcd9mTL2Ccvzs9nREx8uxJZif_lBzq2dVkhmedjCdiIIY9Ilx_Ove_8fKe0MvL3mn7Cces7UixbXRW4WcvEcN_zEoqu5XnSqz8CCCZGIM=s0-d-e1-ft#https://worldbeyondwar.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/enewsheaderblue.png)

May 4, 2020

(https://ci5.googleusercontent.com/proxy/02yARLrIgQhUfyu_Ho8SCWz4RKP209nmtx0_aNzOSEeYg0xmsa6hcVWBblpeIBJQ4lgA0jhelZnEXTL5sPPLNNF4jGj3mrG-89ioF6_s9oZVsRJraQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://can2-unlayer.s3.amazonaws.com/1588507016859-mmsliderLG.png)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-040520160846.png)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-150715183719.png&hash=7b222546f30a032efc31223d85eea0535ed42a49)

A new collection of maps displays what militarism looks like in the world. Included are these topics: Wars, Weapons, U.S. Weapons, Money, Nukes, Chemical and Biological, U.S. Military, Air Strikes, Law, and Promotes Peace and Security. See the maps. (https://worldbeyondwar.org/militarism-mapped/?link_id=3&can_id=f6a3d966836d5b36db494f1237d9b97d&source=email-wbw-news-action-ceasefire-without-cease&email_referrer=email_793441&email_subject=wbw-news-action-mapping-militarism-2020) 👀

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-210316151047.png&hash=322a7c76731414f0f2ba44f8649e39de889b4bd6)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-230220174914.jpeg)
Title: Green Beret Tried To Overthrow Maduro With 300 Thick Neck Brutes, Another Coup Attempt By Boat
Post by: AGelbert on May 04, 2020, 10:57:17 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718205808.gif&hash=5c451456a306c150d3555c49e31a2f47d6f369a9) Green Beret Tried To Overthrow Maduro With (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) 300 Thick Neck Brutes, Another Coup Attempt By Boat
454 views•May 4, 2020

https://youtu.be/lpQMkC_nVlQ

Jamarl Thomas
28K subscribers

Green Beret Tried To Overthrow Maduro With 300 Thick Neck Brutes, Another Coup Attempt By Boat

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Category News & Politics
Title: Cut The Sh!t
Post by: AGelbert on May 07, 2020, 02:54:37 pm
Cut The Sh!t(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418202709.png&hash=7503265ec59e4c28d735afb762bc39f4674bd838)
77 watching now•Started streaming 51 minutes ago

https://youtu.be/a-8GjEm7H8U

Black Bear News
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#FridayGasStrike #ExtinctionRebellion #ClimateStrike
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Category People & Blogs
Title: Peace Actions
Post by: AGelbert on June 19, 2021, 02:41:00 pm
(https://ci6.googleusercontent.com/proxy/bMi5K4CDjFlORKNzbtb8lit774Y1msNFvqsbSgXnjuUWN_dpHltajASyKjxYyLW_EG-St1vg9JhrJR1vAL8SwjJmNeDervxCdhNS7cu1ZyWAx3J0=s0-d-e1-ft#https://truthout.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/truthout_logo.jpg)

June 17, 2021

BY Chris Walker, Truthout

House Passes Historic Bill 🕊️ Ending Military Authorization in Iraq (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-080515182559.png&hash=d4dfa952fa0f817bf30a8059a4c88d6fb05ee1bf)

SNIPPET:

Legislation that would end the Authorization for Use of Military Force (AUMF) in Iraq or in situations where U.S. interests are impacted in that region of the world, passed within the House of Representatives on Thursday.

The vote on the bill was technically bipartisan (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718202127.gif&hash=acc63221521ebaf3f238088fd92d1ae3a08b6e48), with 49 🐘 Republicans (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185036-1638694.gif&hash=648d3b7e5567fa4f349a5fbfbfc1df8b27355704) joining 219 Democrats (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-300919160022-2281531.png) in the House.

The bill, which ends the AUMF that was originally passed in 2002 during the run-up to the war in Iraq, has the support of lawmakers in the Senate as well. The White House has also signaled that President Joe Biden would sign the bill into law if it reached his desk.

“The administration supports the repeal of the 2002 AUMF, as the United States has no ongoing military activities that rely solely on the 2002 AUMF as a domestic legal basis,” the White House said in a statement earlier this week.

The Iraq War has been over for nearly a decade. The authorization passed in 2002 is no longer necessary in 2021,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York).

Full article: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
https://truthout.org/articles/congress-poised-to-end-presidential-authority-for-use-of-military-force-in-iraq/

 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163126-1679864.gif&hash=e6df16bb8deab5f394d83bc7fcf82d9f912e9d2b)

Title: Shrewd deceptions: Lying by omission
Post by: AGelbert on June 22, 2021, 12:26:17 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.quickmeme.com%2Fimg%2Fbe%2Fbead363502f8e7564038c7072c490cfc0da55bf30c42bb1f04983157e9ae7125.jpg&hash=d1cd0fdeefcea255c8c08d44a2972681ba3c90a3)

Shrewd 😈 deceptions: Lying by omission

Understanding how misguided and arguablyinsane our 🦍 military priorities  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190419232147.png&hash=b9d818543137cfd7ac4b712c1c25fe3b94b6d174)  and 💵💰🎩🍌 spending are.

By John Rachel -June 21, 2021

SOURCE NationofChange
 
We all know what ‘asymmetry’ means when it comes to military conflict. One country drops a few bombs. The bombed country responds not in-kind, but in another fashion: a cyber attack, a psyops, biochemical attack, they hack into elections (thank you, Rachel Maddow, for bringing us up to speed on that!), they put LSD in the drinking water.

Here’s a different feature of that concept which is useful for understanding how misguided, arguably insane, our military priorities and spending are.

Within kinetic warfare itself—bombs, missiles, soldiers, planes, submarines, tanks—there’s also a profound asymmetry. And the asymmetry is the difference between OFFENSIVE WARFARE and DEFENSIVE WARFARE.

First off, let’s be clear about something: Defending one’s own nation is much easier and less expensive than attacking another nation, because first of all the positioning of military assets is at the outset opposite, then what is used in the engagement of the enemy and how the enemy is engaged is dramatically different.

That being said . . .

We hear the following question over and over: Why is it that the U.S. spends more on military than the next 9 countries combined?

In parallel . . .

Why is it the combined defense budget of the U.S. and NATO, which in 2020 came in at over a trillion dollars ($1.028 trillion) is four times the combined defense budgets of China ($237 billion) and Russia ($48 billion)?

FOUR TIMES as big!

Yet, we are now hearing even louder and more insistently than ever the harangue from generals and other military planners that WE NEED MORE! More equipment, more troops deployed, more bombs, more ships, more missiles.

MORE MONEY!

(https://www.freedomsphoenix.com/Uploads/Graphics/046-0524040444-101310cartoong1-1024x801.jpg)

And at the core of the justification for the latest DOD money grab is this statement, coming by the way from both the Army and Navy:

“We can’t win a war with either Russia or China.”

Wait!

We can’t win a war with Russia and China. YES . . . that’s true. But you know what else is true? They can’t win a war with us!

Maybe I’m being quixotic but this sounds to me like a cause for celebration. In some twisted 21st Century way, this is a recipe for peace! None of the major powers would dare start a war since they know up front they’d lose.

I say . . . break out the champagne!

Of course, that begs the question: why are our military planners crying the blues, getting all weepy, and saying we’re in a boatload of trouble? America’s military force is apparently a paper tiger.

The answer is both simple and quite revealing. Because what we have here is yet another example of the grotesque deceptions we’re relentlessly subjected to. This one is a classic case of LYING BY OMISSION.

What did they leave out? Well, what they left out is . . .

WE CAN’T WIN A WAR OF AGGRESSION against Russia.

WE CAN’T WIN A WAR OF AGGRESSION against China.

We can’t attack them on their soil, in their sphere of influence, on their seas, in their skies . . . and defeat them. WE’RE A SAD BUNCH OF LOSERS!

This heightened paranoia and self-serving prevarication highlights in big bold letters exactly what’s wrong with our foreign policy, our military planning, our conquer-the-world mentality, the whole regime of military and diplomatic planning.

AND . . . it also makes it completely clear why our DOD budgets are and will always be increasing, why our bloated expenditures on bringing the rest of the world to its knees to worship at the altar of our absolute power are completely irrational, the product of delusion and pure hubris.

There simply is no bottom to the hole we’re digging ourselves into.

Right now our military is freaking out about the advanced weaponry of Russia. We can’t keep up. Hypersonic missiles, nuclear-powered cruise missiles, high-speed aquatic attack drones, advanced Anti-Access/Area Denial electronic warfare.

Russia has left the U.S. in the dust!

Our DOD budget for 2020? . . . $718 billion.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300115234833.gif&hash=20e82f36f361174e6f8f07e11c36330842502bab)

Russia’s military budget 2020? . . . $48 billion.

Yes, really. Only $48 BILLION!

Let’s even factor in the differences in cost of living. Current figures show that the COL of Russia is about half that of the U.S., meaning in U.S. dollars everything would cost twice as much. Alright, 2 times $48 billion is STILL ONLY $96 billion. In U.S. dollars, to create and maintain their awesome, SCARY military power, Russia spends 13% of what the U.S. does.

THAT’S how inexpensive a truly remarkable, effective DEFENSIVE military can be designed and deployed. Why then are we spending over seven times as much for our less-than-capable military machine?

As if we could forget, we haven’t won a single war since WWII. Okay okay . . . we trounced Granada in a one-sided invasion against some lifeguards and tow-truck drivers.

The problem is obvious . . . trying to police and conquer the entire planet is bankrupting us! No amount of lying, propaganda, and rah-rah-support-our-troops PR blitzing changes the truth.

Isn’t time we the people put a stop to this grotesque fraud? Isn’t it time we united behind a couple simple, straightforward, obvious propositions?

Enough is enough!

We’re not going to take it anymore!

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132401-16881856.gif&hash=ef5bd30cec7a50a81f3507f9bd328189dead7aa2) Stop the military insanity before we destroy ourselves!

We can do this, if we just do what we need to do. Our current leadership and the military are incapable of reining themselves in. It’s up to us—we the people—alone.

We must confront the lies and remove from power the liars who tell them, to halt America’s self-destructive obsession with full spectrum dominance. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190119153601.gif&hash=336ba78f7f18ff5829ef3722f89b4258d2315284)

Like Julian Assange says: “If wars can be started by lies, they can be stopped by truth.”
https://www.nationofchange.org/2021/06/21/shrewd-deceptions-lying-by-omission/
Title: “a decision based on hubris.”
Post by: AGelbert on August 17, 2021, 02:42:47 pm
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Aug 16 2021, 10:05 PM By Grace Benninghoff

Vermont delegation stands by Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan

Vermont’s three congressional delegates continued to support President Joe Biden’s withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan on Monday despite a swift collapse of the government and takeover by the Taliban.

At the same time, U.S. Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and U.S. Rep. Peter Welch, D-Vt., expressed dismay at the unfolding crisis there and urged the president to do everything possible to save allies still trapped in the country.

The Taliban’s remarkable advance was capped Sunday when the American-backed government in Afghanistan collapsed and President Ashraf Ghani fled the country — just a few months after Biden announced his decision to withdraw troops after 20 years of American presence in the country.   

Droves of civilians flocked to the airport, some of them hanging on to American military jets, desperate to escape Taliban rule.
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All three members of Congress from Vermont backed Biden when he first announced in April that he would be withdrawing troops and ending the American occupation of Afghanistan, including Welch calling the decision “long overdue” and Sanders calling it “brave and right.”

In an interview on Monday, Welch said he still supported the decision but suggested the “execution is a catastrophe.”

He said (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163127-1680962.png&hash=405119a0c023346043f1dae6ab993a831a8cbb5d) the U.S. should have never been “engaged in nation-building in Afghanistan” to begin with, calling it “a decision based on hubris.”

While Welch said he supports the actions Biden is taking to secure the airport in Kabul, he expressed concern for the many interpreters, women and American allies who live far from the capital and likely will not be able to make safe passage to the airport.

“How can folks in rural parts of Afghanistan get to the airport? It’s heartbreaking,” he said, recalling four trips he had taken to the country.

Leahy echoed Welch on both counts. He said he supported Biden’s decision — calling it “long overdue” — but believed it was executed poorly due to “bad intelligence,” a phrase that was also used by Welch.

“The counterinsurgency war was unwinnable, and the Afghan government was never a credible partner,” Leahy said in a written statement provided to VTDigger. “The withdrawal was poorly planned due to a glaring failure of intelligence about the resilience of the Afghan army.”

Sanders tweeted on Sunday night that “after 20 years of U.S. effort, the loss of 2,448 soldiers and a trillion spent, Afghanistan was left with a corrupt government and an ineffectual military.”

His office did not respond to a request for comment.

“We must do everything we can to evacuate our allies and open our doors to refugees,” Sanders wrote in the tweet.

Biden addressed the nation from the East Room of the White House on Monday afternoon, where he fervently stood by his decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

“There was only the cold reality of either following through on the agreement to withdraw our sources,” the president said, referring to a deal the Trump administration made with the Taliban to withdraw troops by May 2021 in exchange for a ceasefire, “or escalating the conflict and sending thousands more American troops back into combat in Afghanistan and lurching into the third decade of conflict. I stand squarely behind my decision.”

He conceded that the Taliban’s takeover “did unfold more quickly than we had anticipated.”

Biden revealed he had authorized the deployment of 6,000 U.S. troops to the airport in Kabul, where he said they would “assist in the departure of U.S. and allied civilian personnel from Afghanistan” and “evacuate Afghan allies to safety outside of Afghanistan.”

Welch and Leahy argued the Biden administration should have made better arrangements in advance to get allies out of the country before “total breakdown,” noting that many American allies, including women, judges, journalists and interpreters would likely face retaliation from the Taliban.

As chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Leahy secured a deal in July that would provide $1.125 billion of emergency security money to Afghan refugee assistance in the wake of the United States’ withdrawal from the region. The package also included $600 million for humanitarian aid for Afghan refugees and 8,000 new Afghan special immigration visas. Biden signed the bill into law early this month.

The funds were initially opposed by Republicans and “are obviously needed today,” Leahy said.

He also said the United States should take in more Afghan refugees. “I know in Vermont there are communities ready and willing to welcome Afghans, and that is true of communities in many states,” Leahy wrote.

Welch agreed.

“We should be doing everything we can to help those who helped us in getting out of Afghanistan,” Welch said. “We should be very generous with refugee visas for those folks. That’s the bare minimum.”

https://vtdigger.org/2021/08/16/vermont-delegation-stands-by-bidens-decision-to-withdraw-troops-from-afghanistan/

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Title: The 🦍 War 😈 Machine Fails. What Have We Learned? 🙄
Post by: AGelbert on August 26, 2021, 05:10:25 pm
Aug 20, 2021

Maj. Danny Sjursen (ret.) 🗽: The War Machine Fails. What Have We Learned? (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-210818163123-16662165.gif&hash=0c278af5ea445d20e48640c4f39f951df986eed6)

https://youtu.be/MlKGAhYMQAI

The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow ✨ 45.9K subscribers

Subscribe to The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow for more: https://www.patreon.com/thezerohour

If you liked this clip of The Zero Hour with RJ Eskow, please share it with your friends... and hit that "like" button!

Some of the music bumpers featuring Lettuce, http://lettucefunk.com.
Title: For the United States, the problem with the PDPA government was that it was supported by the Soviet Union.
Post by: AGelbert on August 28, 2021, 04:26:07 pm
On July 3, 1979, unknown to the American people and Congress, Carter authorized a $500 million “covert action” program to overthrow Afghanistan’s first secular, progressive government. This was code-named by the CIA Operation Cyclone. The aim was to spread Islamic fundamentalism in Central Asia and destabilize and eventually destroy the Soviet Union. In August 1979, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul reported that “the United States’ larger interests… would be served by the demise of the PDPA government, despite whatever setbacks this might mean for future social and economic reforms in Afghanistan.” Read again the words I have italicized. It is not often that such cynical intent is spelled out as clearly. The United States was saying that a genuinely progressive Afghan government and the rights of Afghan women could go to hell.
(https://planthepromisedland.files.wordpress.com/2018/09/iu.jpeg)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-221215212409.png&hash=a468474328aca658690b57ec357614360c510849)

 August 26, 2021

Catastrophe in Afghanistan: U.S. wrecks another country thinking it’s playing the ‘great game’

By John Pilger (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818185037-16412296.gif&hash=c8a4038d309a0f49ca4a7a464f30f9a340049cac)

As a tsunami of crocodile tears engulfs Western politicians, history is suppressed. More than a generation ago, Afghanistan won its freedom, which the United States, Britain and their “allies” destroyed.

Continue reading → (http://www.intrepidreport.com/archives/33532)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
Title: A Story of War
Post by: AGelbert on November 14, 2021, 03:49:06 pm
Economic Update: A Story of War (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-040718162656-14241872.gif&hash=6c39a3206e2b2a3d652adee626b5eee8ab5b15bf)

https://youtu.be/qVoT5itwq1U

Nov 8, 2021 46,004 views

Democracy At Work 259K subscribers

A Story of War

On this week's show, Prof. Wolff discusses how Amazon rips off small business and squeezes workers, US and China's military tactics, top mainstream economists grasp the deepening critique of capitalism, and how strikes at Nabisco and Kellogg expose capitalism's classic contours of class struggle. The second half of the show features an interview with Prof Talia Lugacy on her new independent film "This is Not a War Story" released by Warner Media HBO Max.

**Economic Update with Richard D. Wolff is a@Democracy At Work production. We make it a point to provide the show free of ads. Please consider supporting our work. Donate one time or become a monthly donor by visiting us at democracyatwork.info/donate or become a patron of Economic Update on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/economicupdate.

Your contributions help keep this content free and accessible to all. Now more than ever, sharing Prof. Wolff's message is critical.
Title: A senior Russian military official said on Monday that Russia was ready to open fire on foreign flagged ships and submar
Post by: AGelbert on February 14, 2022, 04:01:18 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

MOSCOW, Feb 12, 2022 (Reuters)

(https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/07/2021-07-23T191108Z_651815633_RC2GQO9ACMSY_RTRMADP_3_RUSSIA-NAVY-DAY-PARADE-1536x971.jpg)
The Russian Navy's guided missile cruiser Moskva and frigate Admiral Grigorovich are seen ahead of the Navy Day parade in the Black Sea port of Sevastopol, Crimea July 23, 2021. REUTERS/Alexey Pavlishak

More Than 30 Russian Ships Start Drills Near Crimea Peninsula

SNIPPETS:

More than 30 ships from the Russian Black Sea fleet have started training exercises near the Crimea peninsula as part of wider navy drills, RIA news agency reported on Saturday citing the fleet, as Western nations warned that a war in Ukraine could ignite at any moment. ... ...

Moscow denies any plan to invade, saying it is maintaining its own security against aggression by NATO allies.

read more: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
 https://gcaptain.com/30-russian-ships-start-drills-crimea-peninsula/

February 14, 2022

(https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/615528-1536x1020.jpg)
The Russian Navy Udaloy-class destroyer RFS Admiral Panteleyev (BPK 548) arrives at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam to participate in the Rim of the Pacific (RIMPAC) exercise 2012. (U.S. Navy photo by Sean Furey)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-110821160125.png) Russian Navy Warns It Will Fire 💥 If Foreign Flagged Ships Intrude (https://gcaptain.com/russia-navy-warning-foreign-flagged-ships/)
Title: The mess today in Ukraine has its roots in the 2014 when democratically elected Ukrainian President Yanukovych was toppl
Post by: AGelbert on February 24, 2022, 12:11:44 pm
February 24, 2022

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-191017143841.jpeg&hash=21f142befe4ed82f10ef0bdba11c22bbd3051289) What Happened in Ukraine?


The turmoil today in Ukraine has its roots in the 2014 when democratically elected Ukrainian President Yanukovych was toppled in a US-backed coup. (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-250718205808.gif&hash=5c451456a306c150d3555c49e31a2f47d6f369a9) Victoria Nuland was instrumental in orchestrating that US-backed coup.

Why did the US want to get rid of Yanukovych? Because he was against Ukraine joining NATO.

The current comedian president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, repeated two days ago his desire to join NATO. Volodymyr Zelenskyy literally is a comedian who ran for office and won.

McCain dined with Svoboda Party leader Oleg Tyagnibok. The Svoboda Party is a group of neo-Nazis.

The citizens of Ukraine were used as pawns in yet another US mission that backfired.

Victoria Nuland and Obama and Biden (and McCain and so on and so bipartisan forth) did not care then, and do not care now, about the Neo-Nazi massacre of ethnic Russians as long as the US-backed Neo-Nazis continue to want Ukraine in NATO. Birds of a fascist feather, and all that. 

That's the real story the (Fascist loving) US 🐍 media will not discuss.

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Title: U.S. 🦍 war 😈 propaganda must be met with determined 🗽 opposition 🕊️.
Post by: AGelbert on February 24, 2022, 02:17:13 pm
The Class Struggle

February 24, 2022

(https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/UkrGCS-1080x810.jpeg)

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-150715183719.png&hash=7b222546f30a032efc31223d85eea0535ed42a49)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-111018132422-1692935.gif&hash=94922268ae283c7009e29067ba89220f466726ec) (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
U.S. war on Russia: a stampede off a cliff. ~~ Sara Flounders (https://ongoingclassstruggle.blogspot.com/2022/02/us-war-on-russia-stampede-off-cliff.html)


Title: "Whatever the failings of the Yanukovich administration, the Coup that replaced him was far worse ..."
Post by: AGelbert on February 25, 2022, 03:42:27 pm
U.S. war on Russia: a stampede off a cliff. ~~ Sara Flounders (https://ongoingclassstruggle.blogspot.com/2022/02/us-war-on-russia-stampede-off-cliff.html)

agelbert a day ago
Victoria Nuland is involved with this up to her evil eyeballs. For those who did not quite connect all the dots from the above article, here is the summary of the pro-fascist US skullduggery in Ukraine:
What Happened in Ukraine?
The turmoil today in Ukraine has its roots in the 2014 when democratically elected Ukrainian President Yanukovych was toppled in a US-backed coup. Victoria Nuland was instrumental in orchestrating that US-backed coup.
Why did the US want to get rid of Yanukovych? Because he was against Ukraine joining NATO.
The current comedian president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, repeated two days ago his desire to join NATO. Volodymyr Zelenskyy literally is a comedian who ran for office and won.
McCain dined with Svoboda Party leader Oleg Tyagnibok. The Svoboda Party is a group of neo-Nazis. The citizens of Ukraine were used as pawns in yet another US mission that backfired. Victoria Nuland and Obama and Biden (and McCain and so on and so bipartisan fascism loving forth) did not care then, and do not care now, about the Neo-Nazi massacre of ethnic Russians as long as the US-backed Neo-Nazis continue to want Ukraine in NATO. Birds of a fascist feather, and all that.

That's the real story the (Fascist loving) US media will not discuss.

Quote
dmorista ✨ 6 hours ago
Thank you so much for a good comment on a fine article; a comment that further illuminates the events that took place in Ukraine back during the 2014 Coup period. Yanukovich was not an ideal leader, nor was he a Jeffersonian Democrat, but that is pretty well typical of the sort of leadership we see in places like Ukraine. Whatever the failings of the Yanukovich administration, the Coup that replaced him was far worse and was run by much more ruthless operatives.

Famously, or infamously, the protests at the main square in Kiev in the winter of 2014, saw about 95 deaths, most of people shot by secretive snipers lurking on the roofs and upper floors of various buildings. These snipers shot protesters from both the pro and anti Yanukovich forces and also killed several police and military personnel. A couple of emergency room physicians noted that it appeared that the same weapons and ammunition were used in all the shooting deaths. The sniper force was apparently acting to sow as much chaos, hatred, and disorder as possible. This has all the hallmarks of the operations, run by both the U.S. and Israel, in previous coups and regime change exercises.

The connection to the U.S. and its allies was highlighted by the intercepted cell phone call, in which Victoria Nuland exclaimed that, Yats is our guy, F**k the E.U., and tells the other person that the U.S. spent $5 billion in Ukraine to support our allies and enable a political change favorable to U.S. interests. We must note that Nuland, was Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian affairs at the US Department of State, at the time of the call. She is also the wife of Robert Kagan, the notorious Neo-Con, Ultra Zionist Israel Firster, and founding member of the Project for the New American Century (PNAC).

Yanukovich considered an offer from the European Union (E.U.) and decided it was not as good as the arrangements that Ukraine already had with Russia. This enraged the interests in Ukraine that wanted to change over to closer economic relations with the E.U. These interests stood to benefit handsomely from the graft and theft made possible from loans to Ukraine by the European Central Bank and to take a rake off the top of any funding the E.U. provided. The cost to the bulk of the population of Ukraine would have been severe. These costs included International Monetary Fund (IMF) type austerity cuts to social services and “structural adjustment” policies. Those policies inevitably require cuts in social services and the sell-off of publicly owned assets, at fire sale prices, to well connected finance capitalists from the U.S. and Western Europe loomed in the background.

Ukraine is a large country with several distinct regions. Western Ukraine is wheat growing country, sort of like Kansas or Nebraska. Populated largely by right-wing farmers. Eastern Ukraine is more like Ohio or Michigan, a declining industrial region, but with a long history of worker activism and left-leaning politics. The areas near the Black Sea, including both the actual Crimea that voted overwhelmingly to leave Ukraine and join Russia, as well as neighboring areas not within the boundary of Crimea, are all largely Russian Speaking. Fascist operatives launched various attacks against the Russian Speaking population there in 2014, shortly after the Coup occurred in Kiev. These attacks included the intentional burning of the Labor Center in Odessa, a fire that killed 39 people who had taken refuge in the Union Building. They were under attack by rightist gangs on the streets near the Labor Center when they took refuge there. The Coup government made all kinds of threats against the Russian Speaking population of Ukraine (they compose close to half the country) including a declaration by a female member of the inner circle that all Russian Speakers should be exterminated.

Like nearly all large capitol cities, Kiev is more cosmopolitan than the surrounding right-wing Ukrainian countryside. A significant part of its population is composed of people much like the Russian speaking populations of the Donets, Luhansk, and Crimean regions.

agelbert > dmorista  13 minutes ago
Excellent analysis ✨ of the situation. Thank you for posting this.
Title: 📢 Why is Ukraine the West's Fault? Featuring John Mearsheimer 🕯️✨
Post by: AGelbert on February 26, 2022, 03:58:31 pm
Quote
"One of the functions of war hysteria is to create a giant atavistic and nationalist fog that erases public attention and consciousness regarding underlying social, political economic, and environmental oppression within and across nation states." -- Paul Street ✨ February 25, 2022

Here's some background on Ukraine you need to know that our corrupted 🐍 media wants you to forget or never learn in the first place:
 
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/4/3-260222145656.png)

Why is Ukraine the West's (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190419235756.png&hash=ddd7a71acf6ff0420a63e797c27fdcad27734e3e) Fault?

UnCommon Core: The Causes and Consequences of the Ukraine Crisis

John J. Mearsheimer, the R. Wendell Harrison Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and Co-director of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, assesses the causes of the present Ukraine crisis, the best way to end it, and its consequences for all of the main actors.

A key assumption is that in order to come up with the optimum plan for ending the crisis, it is essential to know what caused the crisis. Regarding the all-important question of causes, the key issue is whether Russia or the West bears primary responsibility.

https://youtu.be/JrMiSQAGOS4

dmorista Mod  > agelbert • 7 minutes ago
Thanks, I had noticed this talk before, it has now moved up to the top of my need-to-watch list. He and Walt wrote the pathbreaking study The Israel Lobby and were attacked professionally by that very lobby. They are brave and honest academics. We need more like them.

agelbert > dmorista Mod
The Israel lobby is pack of fascism enablers. Anyone that exposes their skullduggery needs to be listened to and honored.
http://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/geopolitics/war-provocations-and-peace-actions/msg17324/#msg17324
Title: It's M.A.D. all over again. 🤦‍♂️
Post by: AGelbert on February 27, 2022, 12:59:30 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F4%2F3-270222125700.png&hash=90c409c5bd70e8bfdd4cb6ab6396a698ad57b7a1)
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300714025419.bmp&hash=da138f8dd4642b7cf085ff4d0431945ea9d28ce6)                                 (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-310714182509.png&hash=7a8191a3d5ff15c51ad36a342a0cd50a90b956bd)                                (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-300714025456.bmp&hash=f4e4a260bd60d3f34ca86fed93c47d5fb4117cfd)

FEBRUARY 25, 2022  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418200416.png&hash=15d789b29124aa5a1f1ea397ce630913734b20a4)
Russophobia Leads Us to Assume the Worst of Russians – and Assuming They’re Demonic Could be Dangerous (https://www.counterpunch.org/2022/02/25/235254/)

Quote
M.A.D. Foreign Policy(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2Fthumb_3-070115205550.bmp&hash=954ecd048188876741ab48a48f4eee644baa39ec)(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F2%2F3-190419232147.png&hash=b9d818543137cfd7ac4b712c1c25fe3b94b6d174) (https://sites.psu.edu/osmondcivic/2017/04/07/m-a-d/)
Sometime in the 1960s the United States and Soviet Union both figured out how to destroy the world. There were about 20,000 nuclear weapons between the two countries and at any moment they could turn the globe into a pile of ash. Today there are 9 countries in possession of nuclear weapons of their own (there are many stored around the world in other countries, but they do not have direct control over these nuclear weapons). This “nuclear club” is made up of, in descending order of weapons, Russia, the United States, France, China, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, India, Israel*, and North Korea.

*- Israel neither confirms nor denies its nuclear program, they have an estimated 80 warheads
February 27, 2022 Putin puts Russia's nuclear forces on alert as fighting in Ukraine continues (https://www.cbsnews.com/news/ukraine-russia-invasion-war-putin-nuclear-forces-high-alert/) (https://media.tenor.com/images/926c7a7fd37a2d72b10bc8e1252980b5/tenor.gif)

Title: The Eastern Theatre Command of China’s People’s Liberation Army is not amused.
Post by: AGelbert on February 28, 2022, 01:09:23 pm
(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-170218174357.png&hash=296cf589ab13b3bca649d79db1953fa2289b1563)

February 26, 2022

(https://gcaptain.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/USS_Ralph_Johnson_DDG_114_and_USS_Princeton_CG_59_2020-3-1536x1024.jpg)
The Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer USS Ralph Johnson (DDG 114) and the Ticonderoga-class guided-missile cruiser USS Princeton (CG 59)PHILIPPINE SEA (June 23, 2020) (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class John Philip Wagner, Jr./Released)

China Calls U.S. Warship Sailing In Taiwan Strait A “Provocative Act”

SNIPPET:

Taiwan’s Defence Ministry said the ship sailed in a northerly direction through the Strait, that its forces had monitored its passage and observed nothing out of the ordinary.

Taiwan is currently in a heightened state of alert due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, nervous that China may try to take advantage of the situation to make a move on the island though the government has reported no unusual Chinese maneuvers.

Last year, U.S. naval ships transited the Strait roughly monthly. Saturday’s sailing was the first since November.

Full article: 😬
https://gcaptain.com/china-u-s-warship-sailing-in-taiwan-strait-a-provocative-act/

Agelbert NOTE: The MIC has been out of control for several decades now. What can you say about a military that thinks fying a pirate flag is "traditional"?

(https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/4/3-280222125922.jpeg)
The Pirate Flagged USS Kidd isn't kidding. Though this is the only US Navy Ship allowed to "ceremonially" fly the Jolly Roger, this is just one more not so subtle hint about what the MIC's MO IS (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-070814193155.png&hash=144ce9330e49ee84060db8753a8db69c39a14913) ALL (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-130418203402.gif&hash=b2691028ba683a0039a5811f5775c68d7ccae01c) ABOUT.  (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F3-200714183337.bmp&hash=fd5a6df63c32bd65dda7b6d93e788647ca3829df)

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Title: Ukraine’s president calls Russian targeting of central Kharkiv a war crime, Russian troops are closing in on Kyiv and Di
Post by: AGelbert on March 01, 2022, 12:37:51 pm
(https://ci3.googleusercontent.com/proxy/PcmbqX5054IGAj-PY3iKxosnwheIg76U_ecWX4x4CIKr4FeLDbS6JP0jTLwnoV9F5OG9_H9hzyJWVifFQSWYwK3nFrPRDPApcLvE2cpRwqbj-XfpU0Y6VWcW48Ha8ZGcgBTjM27mJhNnIWVv3rLr1Opg62ZLqQ=s0-d-e1-ft#https://mcusercontent.com/bf931133a7ae98b961f49dd17/images/fe677fd2-e5be-4225-8e4e-2cb9fe491366.png)

March 1, 2022

👋 Goedendag!*
Welcome to Tuesday, where Ukraine’s president calls Russian targeting of central Kharkiv a war crime, Russian troops are closing in on Kyiv and Die Welt reports from near the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad on the rising fear following Putin’s putting nuclear forces on high alert. We also look at how countries around the world are coming around to the controversial COVID policies of Sweden.

[*Dutch for "Good Day"]

   
🌎  7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• Zelensky denounces Kharkiv war crime, Russians bear down on Kyiv: The center of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second biggest city, has been hit by a Russian strike which caused a massive explosion and destroyed a government building, after Russian forces bombarded Ukraine’s second-biggest city on Monday, killing at least 9 civilians. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky denounced the bombardment as a war crime. At least 70 soldiers were also killed in an attack on a military unit in the eastern city of Okhtyrka. Meanwhile, satellite images show a massive 64-kilometer-long Russian military convoy is closing in on Kyiv.

• Next round of peace talks to be held in a few days: Officials from Ukraine and Russia ended peace talks on Monday at the Rumyantsev-Paskevich residence in Gomel, Belarus on Monday without any breakthrough or a secured ceasefire, but both sides agreed to meet again later this week to return with potential grounds for compromise.

• African refugees fleeing Ukraine say they face racism at border: As African governments scramble to help their nationals escape Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, reports are emerging of racist and unfair treatment of African citizens, as well as African and Indian students, at the border with Poland. The UN has reported that more than half a million people have fled Ukraine since the invasion started.

• Lockdown fears cause panic buying in Hong Kong: Hong Kong’s leader Carrie Lam urged calm after residents stripped supermarket shelves bare amid rumors and mixed messaging from the government about a potential city-wide lockdown. Authorities plan to test all 7.4 million residents at the end of this month as Hong Kong has reported more than 190,000 infections in the last two months, compared to just 12,000 in the past two years.

• Three-year military-led transition approved in Burkina Faso: Following a military coup last January, Burkina Faso’s junta has adopted a charter allowing a three-year transition period before the West African country heads to elections.

• Russia-Ukraine war affects sport and entertainment: Hollywood studios Warner Bros., Disney, and Sony Pictures announced they would “pause” the release of their films in Russia, including one of this year’s most anticipated movies, The Batman. Meanwhile, soccer federations FIFA and UEFA have expelled Russia from the 2022 World Cup and suspended the country’s clubs and national teams from all their competitions.

• T. rex may have been three species: Researchers studying fossils of T. rex found in lower layers of sediment have discovered that the fearsome predator  may have had two 🦖🦖 sibling tyrannosaurus species (https://edition.cnn.com/2022/02/28/world/t-rex-three-different-dinosaurs-scn/index.html), that the scientists named Tyrannosaurus imperator (tyrant lizard emperor) and Tyrannosaurus regina (tyrant lizard queen).

Read more: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Frenewablerevolution.createaforum.com%2Fgallery%2Frenewablerevolution%2F1%2F3-120818180835-16281948.gif&hash=bde76e8c89cdf209aecaf236a316ba025ef35835)
https://worldcrunch.com/world-affairs/how-ukrainian-forces-are-thwarting-putins-plans-for-rapid-conquest/counting-the-enemy-losses
Title: War Provocations
Post by: AGelbert on March 04, 2022, 04:49:21 pm
The Biden 🦕 Era, 💥 Ukraine, and the Crisis of the Left w/Dr. Anthony Monteiro (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/2/3-301021140910.gif)
https://youtu.be/GnLZgR3msQA
Streamed live on Feb 27, 2022

The Left Lens 10.3K subscribers

Danny Haiphong and Margaret Kimberley speak with Dr. Anthony Monteiro, organizer of the Saturday Free School.

Comments: (https://renewablerevolution.createaforum.com/gallery/renewablerevolution/3-130418200416.png)
https://ongoingclassstruggle.blogspot.com/2022/02/the-biden-era-ukraine-and-crisis-of.html